Kent has strong hand in Tulloch Stakes

Thursday 4 April 2013, 4:14pm

Mick Kent has his promising young stayers Philippi and High Shot on a well-deserved Australian Derby path.

But he acknowledges his hopes of winning the classic have diminished considerably following the "sobering" experience of watching raging Derby Favourite It's A Dundeel win the Rosehill Guineas.

Kent didn't have a runner in the Guineas but the trainer made sure he got a good view of the race that It's A Dundeel won by 6-3/4 lengths.

Philippi and High Shot contest Saturday's Group Two Tulloch Stakes (2000m) at Rosehill and are in line to then back up against It's A Dundeel in the Derby (2400m) a week.

"It was a bit sobering seeing that horse last week," Kent said of It's A Dundeel.

"He was just awesome."

Before the Derby there is Saturday's Group Two up for grabs and Kent believes Philippi, who will race in blinkers for the first time, will run well.

The trainer said he was also keen to get High Shot, a last start sixth in the Phar Lap Stakes (1500m), over this sort of distance on rain-affected going.

"He (High Shot) seems to have handled all things up there well, so I'm looking forward to him getting over this distance," Kent said.

"Philippi's runs this time in have all been reasonably good and if he has some luck I think he'll run well."

An offer to buy Philippi in the lead-up to the Rosehill Guineas "fell over", Kent said.

Philippi, a last start second in the Alister Clark Stakes, is on the second line of betting at $4.20 behind Proverb with High Shot at $8.

Meanwhile, the Kent-trained Summerbliss steps up to 2000m in the Group One Vinery Stud Stakes with the Australian Oaks (2400m) her main autumn target.

"The 10 furlongs is not her best trip, she's looking for the mile-and-a-half, but it's the logical step on the way through," Kent said.

– AAP

Latest News

Prime Thoroughbreds - We have a Host of Leaders in our Team

Tuesday, 29 June 2021

Prime Thor­ough­bred’s cur­rent rac­ing team is putt­ing to­gether quite a re­cord. We have 22 hors­es that have raced in our team at pre­sent. Six­teen of th­ese are win­n­ers in­clud­ing the Stakes win­n­ing trio Ru­bisa­ki, Fituese and Xtreme­time with Miss Di­vine Em and Miss In Charge run­n­ing 4th in Stakes races. This sees a stakes win­n­er to win­n­er ra­tio of 18.75% with a stake’s per­formed to win­n­er ra­tio of 31.25%. Th­ese are ex­cep­tio­n­al fig­ures.   More »

Freedmans land maiden Group One win

Saturday, 27 February 2021

Un­der-rat­ed fil­ly For­bid­den Love has emerged as an au­tumn car­ni­val smokey with a bril­liant per­for­mance to win the Sur­round Stakes at Rand­wick.  More »

Capriccio completes Damian Lane treble

Saturday, 27 February 2021

In a big day for coun­try-trained hors­es, War­r­nam­bool fil­ly Capric­cio has tak­en out the In­glis Dash for Daniel Bow­man.  More »

More news headlines »