Trainer Scott Singleton finds himself increasingly accustomed to Sobek’s impressive performances and is eager to showcase the undefeated gelding on the metropolitan circuit this coming weekend.
Sobek is slated to make his city debut at Rosehill’s season-opening meeting on Saturday. The promising four-year-old has entries in two 1200-metre races: the $160,000 Benchmark 72 for three and four-year-olds, and the $120,000 Class 3 Highway Handicap, with Singleton expressing a preference for the latter.
He will be aiming for his fourth consecutive win to commence his career, building on two victories at Scone this preparation and a maiden win at Taree in January. Singleton candidly admits he did not anticipate the gelding’s rapid ascent through the racing grades.
“It wasn’t until a couple of weeks before his first trial that he actually started to show us anything at home and he’s just kept getting better as he’s gone along,” Singleton remarked.
“He’s had five trials and three starts and won everything, he hasn’t been beaten yet in a trial or a race, so obviously he knows how to win, which is a big tick for any horse.
“I just feel like he’s strong enough and probably got enough race craft now to go down for a Highway and be pretty hard to beat.”
Sobek, who celebrates his fourth birthday on Saturday, is a progeny of Vinery stallion Headwater, with a lineage tracing back to Saintly. His dam, Holy Empress, is a daughter of Holy One, who in turn is out of the Woodman mare Pure Grace. Pure Grace was a half-sister to the renowned former Bart Cummings-trained champion, Saintly.
While Sobek’s three victories have occurred over distances of 900 and 1000 metres, Singleton is confident that the gelding will perform even better over 1200 metres. A commanding 4-1/2-length triumph in a 1200m trial at Muswellbrook on July 15 provided the trainer with the assurance that he was ready for the increased distance.
“Even though he’s won over 900 and 1000, I think he will be better over 1200,” Singleton stated. “I just wanted him to show us at the trials the other day that he’d be strong through the line over the 1200 and he was, he just kept galloping, so I’ll be going there confident that he’s in the right order.”
Singleton has not yet formulated a long-term strategy for Sobek’s campaign, but concedes that a strong performance on Saturday might lead to more ambitious targets.
“I’m just happy for him to tell us how he fits into the scheme of things,” he said. “I wouldn’t have him in front of another horse of mine, Lord Remlap, as a The Kosciuszko-type of horse, but I’m open to the fact he might surprise me again on the weekend.
“When they’re improving you don’t know where that improvement stops, do you?”
The $2 million The Kosciuszko, a 1200-metre race exclusively for horses trained in regional New South Wales, is scheduled to take place at Randwick on The Everest Day, October 17.
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