Champion sire I Am Invincible always looked to have a strong hand in a very competitive two year-old race at Randwick on Saturday and he duly got the trifecta with $1million colt Caballus overhauling a pair of very promising fillies in Estriella and Shaken.
Estriella and Shaken were both coming off impressive maiden wins at the provincials, while the Chris Waller trained Caballus was totally luckless when unplaced on debut and not beaten far at Canterbury earlier this month.
Shaken and Estriella raced forward, while Caballus was allowed to settle back in the field, but he unwound a big finish for James McDonald to power home and grab Estriella, winning the 1100m dash by half a head with Shaken fading to third three lengths back.
They clocked a brisk 1.03.25 which was a class record indicating a bright future for the place-getters.
“We just wanted to get that first win out of the way,” said Chris Waller.
“He had no luck at all on debut, although he had a good experience and he’s gone forward from that.”
James McDonald was impressed with the colt and believes 1400m will hold no fears for him in the future.
"He's a cracking horse, a really good moving horse, good attitude so it will take him a long way," McDonald said.
"It's nice to knock off a nice, sharp two-year-old race with him and hopefully the three-year-old season is good to him."
Raced by Coolmore and partners, Caballus was a $1million Inglis Easter purchase for Tom Magnier from the Bhima Thoroughbreds draft and was broken in and educated at Coolmore. He is the fourth winner from four foals to race from Group III placed Calming Influence, a daughter of stakes-winner Calming.
Caballus is the 199th winner of the season for I Am Invincible and is his 20th Australian two year-old winner.
The Yarraman Park based super sire is fully booked at a fee of $302,500 this spring.
