The money proved bang on at Randwick on Saturday as odds-on favourite Profiteer turned in one of the performances of the day under Hugh Bowman to take out the $2 million Inglis Millennium.
The two-year-old son of Capitalist got into as short as $1.75 with Ladbrokes bookmakers and raced every bit like a future champion storming home from the front to win by over five lengths.
Mick Price’s lightly-raced colt won almost as impressively on debut at Flemington back in December before winning his trial by two lengths at Rosehill last week, while Saturday’s whitewash left Price with only one key date in mind: the $3.5 million Golden Slipper at Rosehill on March 20.
“He’s just got to win a Slipper doesn’t he?” Price told Channel 7.
“I think it would be very difficult for what we’ve done with him to take him back to Melbourne for the Blue Diamond, and that’s two weeks, and then four weeks to the Slipper.
Profiteer put paid to the rest of the field in Saturday’s Inglis Millennium with a dominant five-length win. Photo: Steve Hart.
“He was set for today, $2 million, how can you not? But I did have a bit of a concern in the back of my head that to take him back to Melbourne and then back here, how much horse are you using?
“So you have to pick between the two races, and if I had to pick, I’d be picking the Slipper.”
Not surprisingly, bookmakers have now listed Profiteer as the $5.00 co-favourite with Enthaar in their All-In Slipper market, but with the race still over a month away, we should be treated to another look at the impressive speedster in a few weeks.
“The thing about these two-year-olds is they don’t hold up forever, you can’t ask them to go and go and go. I’m not sure how much petrol he’s got left in the tank after today, but you saw the horse and you saw how brilliant he was, he was just clearly the best horse here” Price went on to say.
Castelvecchio famously won the Inglis Millennium two years ago and has since gone on to win two Group 1 races – the Champagne Stakes and the Rosehill Guineas.
Profiteer, meanwhile, is now hoping to become the first horse to complete the Inglis Millennium/Golden Slipper double.
Ladbrokes’ early Golden Slipper market can be viewed here.
