Mick Price has refrained from aiming too high too soon with a recovering horse like Globe, but he was happy to be talked into running the horse in Saturday’s $500,000 Cranbourne Cup.
“It’s fantastic for the owners because we took a big punt on this race,” an elated Price said after Globe lead throughout to score.
“He’s a 17-hand horse getting around Cranbourne where I have my worst strike-rate, and I thought, greed is good for a $500,000 race. What do you do?”
Price instead had visions of waiting another week for the 1800-metre Eclipse Stakes at Caulfield, which carries less than half the prizemoney of the Cranbourne Cup.
His wariness is easy to understand, however. In September last year, the then unbeaten Globe lined up for his first big test in the Group 2 Feehan Stakes and punters launched on him.
He ran the $3.20 favourite but finished last of 13 runners, some 32 lengths from the winner after suffering a heart episode during the race.
“He had that massive heart attack and then when we got him back he had muscle problems with a shoulder,” he explained. “We had to build him right back up again and it’s always an unknown as to whether they will come back to their best.”
Punters at Cranbourne on Saturday certainly had the feeling that Globe could find his best in the listed 1600-metre race as he was backed late from $6 to start the $4.40 favourite.
Jockey Ethan Brown took him forward early and he refused to let anything pass him in the straight, eventually edging out Air Assault ($5) by a long head with Dashing ($26) just a length away in third place.
Opting for a Cranbourne Cup run instead of the Eclipse, Price brought the horse across from his adjacent stables for a crucial first look at the track last Tuesday morning.
He was worried the big horse would not enjoy the tight-turning circuit, but, according to jockey Ethan Brown, the Tuesday morning look was crucial to his race day chances,
“He got a really good experience here on Tuesday, so it was definitely a good move,” he said.
“Once he gets out in trip and gets rock-hard fit, he’ll take a lot of catching.”