Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young are attempting a lucrative home-coming with Brayden Star, who will chase a series of feature staying races in New Zealand, including the Auckland Cup, over the coming weeks.
Last year’s G2 Herbert Power Stakes winner won a 1400m jump out at Cranbourne on Monday and Young confirmed a flight to Auckland has been booked for the seven-year-old.
The NZ$600,000 Auckland Cup (3200m) on Champions Day in March is the gelding’s main aim and he will take in the G3 Avondale Cup (2400m) en route.
Young believes Brayden Star can return to his best after a couple of lacklustre performances at the end of his spring campaign.
“He trialed up on Monday and won his jump out.
“It was really just a nice maintenance gallop but he looked good.
“We just thought it might be a bit of a softer option to run for some good prizemoney in New Zealand.
“He’s going to fly out on the 14th of February.
“He’ll race in the Avondale Cup and then carry on to the Auckland Cup.
“He’s a Group 2 winner and he’s a talented stayer at his best.
“We put him aside before the Pakenham Cup because he just looked like he’d dried up a little bit in the coat and potentially trained off a bit.
“We sent him to the water walker for three weeks, brought him back and I thought his first-up run at Flemington over 2000m was good.”
The G2 Auckland Cup is the feature staying event on Champions Day on 7 March, which is headlined by the NZ$4,000,000 NZB Kiwi for three-year-olds.
