Oh, for the good old days. Those were the memories that flooded back at the official Randwick two-year-old barrier trials last Monday as we recalled some of the great babies that made their first public racetrack appearances.
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Bloodlines vividly remembers those halcyon days of some 50 years ago with the trials bringing crowds of up to 25,000 on some occasions with families enjoying Sunday picnics and the opportunity to have an illegal wager.
Yes, there was the chance to back a winner, albeit at quite short odds, with most runners quoted around even money.
Arrowfield's media manager Susan Archer summed up the atmosphere of the trials in her appraisal of last Monday: "The official two-year-old trials attract what might be Randwick's most high-powered crowd of the season, as studs, breeders, agents and media join owners and trainers to watch the first of each year's babies run."
Bloodlines used to love having a bet on the trials and quite often got some excellent mail on the progress of the debutants, and thought back on how to prosper with a conversation at Randwick last Saturday with Gerald Ryan.
"Have you got any two-year-olds showing some ability trialling on Monday?" I said to Ryan.
He quickly replied: "Sure have. There's a two-year-old by Not A Single Doubt which goes great and a couple of Snitzels I like a lot."
The Not A Single Doubt colt was the one he seemed to fancy most and his judgment was spot on with the horse in question, Condor Heroes, showing a rare turn of speed during his win by more than nine lengths.
He jumped quickly but then displayed amazing acceleration to round the turn with an unbeatable lead and in the process clocked the fastest time of the day as he maintained his momentum to the winning post.
A $190,000 buy by the Hong Kong-based Sun State group, Condor Heroes nows heads to the Breeders Plate on October 1 as the probable favourite, although he will face stern opposition from Piracy, an Exceed and Excel colt who was one of John O'Shea's four winners on Monday.
Piracy looked a real professional in scoring. He sat off the pace and James McDonald didn't pressure the colt in the straight. He looks a definite improver.
From a fillies perspective in the Gimcrack Stakes the two standouts were John Thompson's Fastnet Rock-bred Greater Good, one of the China Horse Club's impressive winners, and Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott's Chain of Fools (More Than Ready) who scored by seven lengths.
The latter training duo had three trial winners from four starters with Misty Lad (Redoute's Choice) and Conservation (Choisir) successful, while their other runner (from Snitzel) finished a close second.
Invariably, the official two-year-old trials are solid form pointers and they should stand up strongly again with Condor Heroes' performance surely one to remember.
Also last Monday, three two-year-old trials were conducted at Cranbourne with the David Hayes-Tom Dabernig partnership winning the first with a Lonhro youngster, Wait For No One.
Clint McDonald trained the second winner, Spoils, a juvenile by Snitzel who was a $350,000 Magic Millions buy, with Damascus Dame, a Denman bought for $60,000 by Robert Smerdon at the Sydney Classic Sales, successful.
Money talks at sale
The annual Inglis Ready2Race sale will be held on October 4 and managing director Mark Webster is anticipating a big day with Racing NSW's significant prizemoney increase coming into force three days before bidding commences. Last year Melbourne based Yulong Investments topped the sale with a two-year-old colt by I Am Invincible at $540,000 and an O'Reilly colt second highest at $280,000.
Ten first-season sires have representatives, while Pendragon, who had a colt sell last year for $160,000, having the most with eight lots. The Coolmore-owned Choisir and So You Think each have seven lots, with Foxwedge, Smart Missile, Hinchinbrook and Reward For Effort having six lots.
