Group 1 winning Kiwi three year old Summer Passage has begun his journey towards taking his place in the Group 1 $500,000 Coolmore Stud Stakes (1200m) at Flemington on November 4.
Matamata co-trainers Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott were pleased with the performance of Summer Passage when he finished midfield in a 1000m barrier at Te Teko today with champion New Zealand apprentice Sam Weatherley in the saddle and have given the Snitzel colt the green light to head to Melbourne for the Spring Carnival.
“Andrew and I were delighted,” O’Sullivan told the New Zealand Racing Desk.
“Sam rode him quietly in the hope that he would settle, which he did and it was a lovely trial.
“He’ll be on the plane to Melbourne in the middle of the month and the idea is to trial him over there at the end of the month and then into the Danehill Stakes.”
The Group 2 $200,000 Danehill Stakes is for the three year olds over 1200m down the Flemington straight on September 16.
“Our main aim will be the Group One Coolmore Stud Stakes so we want him to have some practice down the straight at Flemington before that,” O’Sullivan said.
Summer Passage proved his class with a three quarters of a length win in the Group 1 NZ$200,000 Sistema Stakes (1200m) at Ellerslie in New Zealand on March 16 which earned him a trip to Sydney for the 2017 Autumn Carnival which saw him run second to Invader in the Group 1 $1m Inglis Sires’ (1400m) at Randwick on April 1.