Trainer Mick Price believes that the Group 1 Toorak Handicap (1600m) and Group 1 Group 1 Emirates Stakes (1600m) are both perfect targets for Jabali during the 2015 Spring Racing Carnival.
Jabali recorded his maiden race win in the 2015 edition of the Queensland Guineas. Photo by: Daniel Costello
Jabali finished second behind Earthquake in the 2014 edition of the Group 1 Blue Diamond Stakes, but he did not break through for a maiden race win until his 14th start in the Group 2 Queensland Guineas (1600m) at Doomben on June 6.
Price believes that Jabali is now a much more settled horse that is capable of running out a strong mile and he is hopeful that the Exceed And Excel colt can stack up in races like the Toorak Handicap and Emirates Stakes during the spring.
“I reckon those are his races,” Price told Racing Ahead.
“That Queensland Guineas was the first time that he had got to 1600.
“We tried him over 1400 metres a couple of times and he pulled pretty hard and he pulled himself into the ground and we weren’t a bit negative about going to the 1600, but now that he has done some racing and some travelling he has really settled and I was really pleased at the end of the mile that he hit the line and ran away from them.
“You have to come up a cog as a four-year-old and I am looking forward to him.
“The Toorak and the Emirates are perfect for him.”
Jabali started his racing career with a second place finish behind Risen From Doubt in the Listed Maribyrnong Trial Stakes (1000m) during the 2013 Spring Racing Carnival and was second in both the Group 3 Blue Diamond Prelude (1100m) and the Blue Diamond Stakes during his 2014 Melbourne Festival Of Racing campaign, but he was unable to replicate that form in both the Group 2 Todman Stakes (1200m) and the Group 1 Golden Slipper (1200m) in Sydney.
There was a great deal expected of Jabali during the 2014 Spring Racing Carnival, but he was sent to the spelling paddock after failing to fire in both the Group 3 Vain Stakes (1100m) and the Group 3 McNeil Stakes (1200m) and he was beaten as an odds-on favourite at both Geelong and Werribee at the start of his autumn preparation, but he found a semblance of his best form in Brisbane in both the Listed Mick Dittman Plate (1200m) and the Group 3 Fred Best Classic (1350m) leading into his memorable Queensland Guineas win.
