Éclair Big Bang To Campaign In Melbourne

Éclair Big Bang had only two starts during his autumn preparation and trainer Phillip Stokes has confirmed that the talented gelding will return to Melbourne for a 2014 Spring Racing Carnival campaign.

Eclair Big Bang scored the biggest race win of his career in the 2013 Caulfield Guineas Prelude.

Eclair Big Bang scored the biggest race win of his career in the 2013 Caulfield Guineas Prelude. Photo by: Race Horse Photos Australia

Éclair Big Bang returned to the races with a slightly disappointing fourth place finish in the Listed Redelva Stakes (1050m) at Morphettville on April 12 and did plenty wrong when he finished fourth behind Miracles Of Life in the Group 2 Euclase Stakes (1200m) at the same venue on May 3.

Stokes told Racing Ahead that Éclair Big Bang had clearly relished his time in the spelling paddock and he is hoping that the son of Savabeel will be able to return to the form that he showed when he won the 2013 Caulfield Guineas Prelude (1400m) last spring.

“He came back into my stable today and he looks fantastic and has strengthened up,” Stokes said.

“The horse has got some good wins in him and it just didn’t really pan out for him last prep.

“The pace wasn’t on and he got trapped wide in a few of them.

“I will be aiming him at something in Melbourne first-up early in the spring.

“He is a nice horse and hopefully this will be his prep.”

Éclair Big Bang was testing over a mile during the 2013 Spring Racing Carnival in the Group 1 Caulfield Guineas (1600m) on October 12, but he failed to beat home a single runner and has since been restricted to races over 1200 metres.

Stokes is yet to decide what races he will target with Éclair Big Bang, but he does not believe that the rising four-year-old has the attitude to be able to run out a mile and will keep him for sprinting events.

“I haven’t really mapped out anything in concrete yet, but we will target some of those early spring races and just see where he lies,” Stokes said.

“I think that his mindset is purely sprinting and I will just be keeping him to 1200 to 1400.”

Éclair Big Bang has scored three wins from eight race starts during his racing career to date, including the Group 3 Caulfield Guineas Prelude (1400m), but Stokes is confident that there are more big race wins in store for the New Zealand Bloodstock Yearling Purchase.

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Thomas Hackett

Thomas is a passionate and opinionated racing journalist and punter who has been obsessed with horse racing since he backed Saintly to win the 1996 Melbourne Cup. An international racing enthusiast, he has his finger on the pulse of racing news not just from Australia but all around the world.