Pike’s group winner on Cup trail again
Talented stayer Sacred Master will head Tony Pike’s travelling party to the Queensland winter carnival.
The Group 3 Newcastle Cup (2200m) and Group 1 Auckland Cup (3200m) placegetter will be accompanied to Brisbane by the three-year-olds Bostonian and Terra Sancta.
“Sacred Master had a trial at Te Teko the other day and we’ll give him two runs before the Brisbane Cup, he’ll probably need them both and his third-up form is pretty good,” Pike said.
“We’ll kick him off and then probably head into the Lord Mayor’s Cup and then the Brisbane Cup.”
Sacred Master won six races from Pike’s Cambridge stable before a stint with Chris Waller in Sydney and the son of Mastercraftsman hasn’t raced for 14 months.
Plans for the Jimmy Choux gelding Bostonian in Queensland have yet to be set in stone with an array of opportunities awaiting the Listed El Roca Trophy (1200m) winner.
“There’s pretty much a three-year-old race every week for the next eight weeks for him so I’ll wait to see how he travels and then make a plan,” Pike said.
“There’s plenty of options, races like the Daybreak Lover and the Fred Best Classic and if he’s going well there’s the Queensland Guineas and the Sunshine Coast Guineas.”
Bostonian hasn’t run since he finished sixth in the Group 1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m), but Pike was thrilled with his recent trial placing at Te Teko. Terra Sancta’s early Australian performances will also determine the final outcome for the Kevin Hickman-bred and part-owned Pierro filly.
“Kevin was very keen for her to go over and she’ll run at Ipswich on Monday and then at the Sunshine Coast,” Pike said. “If she could win one of those or place in both then she might make the Queensland Oaks field.”
Terra Sancta has won once from four appearances and was a last-start eighth in the Group 1 New Zealand Oaks (2400m).