Michael Kent Jnr harbours ambitions for Think Giant to compete in more prestigious races than the one scheduled for him this Saturday at Caulfield, viewing it as a suitable starting point.
The imported four-year-old gelding will mark his Australian debut in the $130,000 benchmark 78 race over 1700 metres.
This event will be the Lope De Vega gelding’s first outing since achieving a Group 1 fourth placing in Cologne in September of the previous year, and Kent is eager to discover the trajectory of his Southern Hemisphere career.
“He’s lovely, scopey horse who is far from the finished product,” Kent stated.
“He’s 16.2 (hands) and all leg and I think he’ll keep filling out over the next 12 months or so.”
“Like all of the imports, we’re not forcing him, we just want to let him come to hand naturally and expect that he’ll get better for the prep and be better next preparation.”
Think Giant was acquired through a partnership with OTI for €280,000 (approximately AU$457,000) at The Arc Sale held at Arqana in France, following his fourth-place finish behind Sibayan in the Preis Von Europa (2400m).
Prior to that, he secured a third-place finish over 2400m at Listed level in France, which was his second Black Type placing, having previously finished as runner-up over 1600m at Group 3 level in Germany during his two-year-old season.
Kent mentioned that Think Giant required some adjustment time to acclimatise, but a period with Steven Pateman at Thirteenth Beach assisted in his settling in, and he and his co-trainer Mick Price have observed a significant improvement in recent weeks.
“It’s been the last five weeks really where he’s just got it,” Kent remarked.
“Now he walks out of the barn and he walks home, whereas he used to jig-jog everywhere.”
“He’s a real stayer, but he’s going the right way finally.”
Think Giant’s preparations have included a couple of victorious Cranbourne jumpouts, the first over 1200m and another over 1400m, which Kent found encouraging.
“We haven’t tuned him up for a first up win or anything like that, we’ve just brought him along gently and let everything happen naturally for him,” he explained.
“I don’t think the trials he won at Cranbourne were particularly strong, but he stayed on well on wet ground.”
“He’ll get back and then run on, but I think he’ll be looking for 2000 metres pretty quickly and we have got a bit of weight there on Saturday as well.”
Think Giant is set to carry 61kg at Caulfield, with Tom Stockdale scheduled to ride him.
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