Price is right on his filly

Seabrook improving

MICK Price is confident his Group 1-winning filly Seabrook can bounce back to form in Saturday’s Thousand Guineas following a frustrating trip to Sydney to take on the boys in the Golden Rose last month.

Seabrook ran second last, seven lengths behind The Autumn Sun. But a post-race assessment showed the filly pulled up with the thumps, an electrolyte imbalance.

But two strong gallops where she finished alongside Price’s Caulfield Guineas hope Tavisan this week and the addition of blinkers has given the trainer hope the $21 chance could be highly competitive in the race, where $2.60 chance Smart Melody leads the markets.

“I think you can just put a line through it (the Golden Rose),” Price said. “That’s 100 per cent not her.

“I worked her with Tavisan (last) Saturday morning and again here (on Tuesday) morning and there was nothing between them. She is going well.”

Seabrook, a daughter of Hinchinbrook, had an outstanding two-year-old career, winning the Group 1 Champagne Stakes and running fifth in the Golden Slipper, beaten just over two lengths.

But after a solid first-up run in the McNeil Stakes, she performed well below expectations on the return to Sydney last month, which Price puts down to the stress of travelling.

“She had the thumps, which you will read in the stewards’ report,” Price said of the Golden Rose disappointment. “Thumps is like an electrolyte imbalance, from the distress of travel, I believe.”

Price said his $17 Caulfield Guineas hope Tavisan was also in good order, but needed to take an extra step or two on the colt’s last-start second to Native Soldier in the Caulfield Guineas Prelude. “He has been around it a bit, but I felt we were launching at Native Soldier (in the Prelude), but we couldn’t get him,” Price said.