The $2 million prize pool was too good to refuse for Mick Price and Michael Kent with promising miler Sabaj in The Ingham at Randwick on Saturday.
They had briefly considered spelling the four-year-old after his Cranbourne Cup win, but he won’t get in on the limit in a big mile again and there’s the added bonus of possibility being exempt from the ballot for the Doncaster.
“I think a mile on the big track at Randwick is what he is looking for,” Price said. “There’s a lot of money on the line and it could set our autumn as well with the Doncaster spot on the line.”
“He is a big horse that doesn’t take much work, so after his Cranbourne win where he was good against lesser opposition, this race stood out.”
“Beau Mertens won on him at Cranbourne and can ride the 53kg he should get, and looking at the race, we have to beat Gringotts, which is a good measuring stick, and the John O’Shea horse [Yorkshire].”
Sabaj has emerged this spring, starting with luckless sixth in the Silver Eagle, before he settled on a Melbourne campaign with a win on the final day of the Flemington carnival, before getting out to the mile in the Cranbourne Cup.”
“He probably should run a place in the Silver Eagle and his two wins in Melbourne have been good,” Price said.
“He heads up to the Sydney stable early in the week and he has the experience of being there before.”
“I think in time he will get out to 2000m, so this will be a good test for him. He is still getting better.”
George Ryder Stakes winner Gringotts will be at the top of the weights when they are released on Monday and will be out to make a hattrick of a third million-dollar-plus race after winning the Big Dance and The Gong.
Gringotts is the $2.50 favourite in front Sabaj at $3.50 with Yorkshire next in betting at $4.50 following his dominant Festival Stakes win a fortnight ago.
