Victorian hoop Luke Currie is looking forward to partnering Aegon in the Gr.1 Makybe Diva Stakes (1600m) at Flemington on Saturday after riding him in track work on Tuesday morning.
Currie will replace Jye McNeil this weekend after Aegon’s fourth placing in the Gr.1 Memsie Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield last month, and he has been pleased with what he has seen from the Kiwi four-year-old.
“His form is really good from New Zealand and his run was really good the other day,” Currie told SENtrack.
“He is not much to look at, I wouldn’t say he is an overly big or strong horse, but he galloped really nice on the course proper this morning.
“He was really professional and it was a good, solid gallop.
“He has done quite well since he has been here. They said he isn’t a great doer in New Zealand but he has been eating up well since he has been in Melbourne.”
The Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman-trained gelding has won five of his eight starts, including the Gr.1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m), Karaka Million 3YO Classic (1600m), and the Gr.2 Hobartville Stakes (1400m).
“He looks like he has got a great turn of foot and in these sort of races they need to be adaptable and do that because they are hard to win. He looks like a nice ride for Saturday,” Currie said.
While confident of a solid performance this weekend, Currie said the son of Sacred Falls will have to be at his best to feature in the classy field.
“It is a really good race,” he said. “Any one of them you could make a case for. He is going to have to be at his best to win, but I did like what I felt this morning.”
Aegon was purchased out of Waikato Stud’s 2019 New Zealand Bloodstock Book 1 Yearling Sale draft by Forsman for $150,000.
Another Karaka sales graduate, Inspirational Girl impressed owner Bob Peters when finishing fifth in the Gr.1 Memsie Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield last month and he is hoping she can build on that result this weekend at Flemington.
The New Zealand-bred mare will join Aegon in the Gr.1 Makybe Diva Stakes (1600m) and Peters is expecting another bold showing from his Group One winner.
"She's good and had the one run like (stablemate) Superstorm," Peters told TAB Radio.
"I was pleased with her last couple of hundred metres (in the Memsie). Hopefully she can show us something.
"It's probably going to be a bit stronger field than what Superstorm met on Saturday (in the Gr.2 Feehan Stakes, 1600m), but you have to come up against them at this time of the year."
Inspirational Girl, now trained by Danny O’Brien, won nine of her previous 12 starts in Western Australia, including the Gr.1 Railway Stakes (1600m) and Gr.3 Asian Beau Stakes (1400m).
The daughter of Westbury Stud's Reliable Man was purchased out of Jamieson Park’s 2017 New Zealand Bloodstock Premier Yearling Sale for $190,000 by bloodstock agent John Chalmers. - NZ Racing Desk
