Price sharpens Group 1 pair for Sir Rupert Clarke test

Mick Price is aware Sabaj and Planet Red need everything to go their way to win this Saturday’s Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes, but he is doing everything he can to give them their best chance.

The Cranbourne trainer, who operates in partnership with Michael Kent Jnr, has made a concerted effort to keep them sharp enough to be a force in the $1 million event over 1400 metres.

Each have bigger goals over further later in spring, but Price has altered their work ahead of their second-up runs and is happy with the way they have adapted to it.

“I cut their work down to half-mile (800m), home ‘three’ (600m) on the grass and they were both perky,” Price said of their work on Saturday morning.

“Both of those horses, their best distance is 1600 and we’re trying to win a 1400-metre race with them, so I need them jumping up and down a little bit.

“They’re nice and fresh and they should show up at the end of 1400.”

Both Planet Red and Sabaj resumed in the Group 1 Memsie Stakes (1400m) on August 29, finishing seventh and last respectively in the 12-horse event won by Beiwacht.

For Planet Red, that was the launch pad of a campaign aimed at the $10 million Group 1 Golden Eagle (1400m) on October 31, while Sabaj’s main aim is the $2 million Five Diamonds (1800m) seven days later.

Each will got to those events via the Group 1 Toorak Handicap (1600m) on October 10 and Price said this weekend’s race was the ideal entry point to that event.

“That (1400m) is not their ideal distance in a Group 1 handicap on top of the ground where they might run 1:22-something if it’s a good-run race,” Price said.

“But this is the race we want to use to go to the Toorak and they’re both going well.”

Planet Red and Sabaj among 24 entries for the Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes, which is also likely to feature Lady Shenandoah, Sepals and Angel Capital.

It is one of two $1 million Group 1 races at Caulfield this Saturday, accompanied by the Underwood Stakes (1800m), which counts Cosmic Crusader, Aeliana, Birdman, Buckaroo and Lindermann among 15 nominations.