It has been almost a decade since the Magic Millions 2YO Classic was won by a horse who did not have its final lead-up run in Queensland, but Bjorn Baker is looking to buck that trend with O’ Ole.
The daughter of Ole Kirk will round out her preparations in this Saturday’s $160,000 Petaluma Handicap at Randwick.
The 1100-metre event will be run two weeks out from the $3 million Gold Coast feature and while there was also an option for O’ Ole at Eagle Farm, Baker was keen to keep her home for as long as possible.
“There is a similar race in Queensland on Saturday, but this just leaves her at home for a little longer and we’ll be able to run in this and then head up to Gold Coast,” Baker’s racing manager Luke Hilton said.
“She’ll run on Saturday and then that will give her two weeks into the Magic Millions.
“She’s obviously qualified for that by winning the Wyong race but she needs a tick over run leading into it, so she’ll go around on Saturday.”
O’ Ole (58kg) will this weekend renew hostilities with Memo (56.5kg), who she defeated in the Wyong Magic Millions 2YO Classic and also beat home when second in the Group 3 Gimcrack Stakes on September 30.
Tempestuous (58kg), the beaten favourite at Wyong, also lines up and the Gold Coast is still on the agenda for that trio, who will be out to become the first horse since Capitalist to win the Magic Millions off a final lead-up outside Queensland.
Capitalist, the 2016 Magic Millions winner, went straight to the Gold Coast off a win in the same race that O’ Ole won at Wyong.
Memo is favourite over O’ Ole in both Saturday’s race and also the Magic Millions, but the Baker team is delighted with its charge.
“She can’t have done any more than what she did at Wyong,” Hilton said.
“She sat outside a good speed and win and we know she is still improving all the time, as most of the two-year-olds are.
“We couldn’t be happier with her. Rachel King galloped her Tuesday morning and she was over the moon with how she feels and she’s progressing nicely with the more racing she’s getting.”
King gets back aboard O’ Ole at Randwick, after Jason Collett rode at Wyong, with the pair to start from the outside alley in the field that is down to eight runners.
