Melbourne training partnership Mick Price and Michael Kent jnr are looking ata permanent base in Sydney after netting nearly $1 million in prizemoney in the past couple of months from a half-dozen visitors boxes at Rosehill.
Price has sent trusted foreman Ben Elam north for what amounts to a trial run for a Sydney stable and has been delighted with the results.
Amenable on the rails fights out the finish of the All Aged Stakes with Magic Time and Private Eye.Credit: Getty
The stable picked up the Gosford Cup last week with Hezashocka from the Rosehill base, and it will be the launching pad to the Stradbroke for Amenable, which heads to Scone as a $4.20 favourite for Saturday’s Luskin Star Stakes after finishing second in the All Aged Stakes.
“I have always had success with my horses out of Rosehill and if I could get a block of stables there it would be tremendous,” Price said. “It has worked well for the past eight weeks with my staff there looking after a select team, and we have had some discussions with the ATC about having something permanent there.
“Having a stable up there would open up so many more options with the $100,000 maidens and other races. I would see it as a Sydney stable, not an offshoot of our operation here. It would be staffed by Sydney staff, who would live and add to racing up there.”
Price and Kent have made a successful move to Cranbourne, which makes the expansion possible now. Perth star two-year-old Bustling joined the stable in the spring and is already in The Everest slot of Max Whitby and Neil Werrett, and the stable wants to keep him in Sydney.
Amenable can add to the northern haul in the Luskin Star, where he has earned topweight after going so close in the All Aged, where he was run down late by Magic Time.
“It is the right race for him on his way to the Stradbroke. He will run at Scone and then two weeks into a group 3 in Brisbane with the Stradbroke his target,” Price said.
“He doesn’t win as often as you would like, but his record has him well up in the weights.”
Amenable only has two wins from 14 starts but has been runner-up at stakes three times as well as running fifth in Australian Guineas and fourth in Toorak Handicap, where with a touch of luck he would have finished a lot closer on both occasions.
“He has been going really well for the team up there and it allowed us to limit his travel, and I’m expecting him from the reports we are getting to step up on Saturday,” Price said.
“He has already shown he is a group 1 performer, and he will get his chance at that level again in the Stradbroke.
“His work has been really good since the All Aged, and Scone being a big track will suit him.”
