Pat Carey thought the Galilee Series Final (2400m) at Caulfield would be a nice race to gauge the ability of his two lightly raced gallopers, Maputo and Zakouma, but he wasn’t prepared for how big a test it will be on Saturday.
“It’s usually a race where horses coming through the grades meet, but that race has held up much stronger than previous years,” Carey said.
“You’ve got an Alister Clark Stakes winner in Antrim Coast and a Victoria Derby runner-up in Apulia,” Carey said.
“I think it’s a very strong edition and it’s going to be a good measuring stick to see how far my pair have come.”
Carey added that with races such as the VRC St Leger and South Australian Derby coming up, he and co-trainer Harris Walker will know where the pair fit into the equation following Saturday.
“We will be in a position to find out precisely where they sit as this is a good field of three-year-old stayers,” he said.
Carey’s forte over his career has been as a trainer of stayers, with four Group 1 wins coming in races held over 2400-2500m.
Both of his gallopers are by Crowded House and have had only three starts each and Carey said he had expected improvement from Maputo ahead of his third start, when he was ultimately successful in a Pakenham maiden over 1600 metres after starting at $41.
“He’s been a bit of a backward horse, but he came on well from his first two starts and I like the way he went about his business last start. He was quite impressive and he was still doing things wrong, but he was able to get away with it,” Carey said.
“After his second start, Ethan Brown said he had a bit of improvement to come and might end up going somewhere.”
**Courtesy racing.com