While The Pinnacles race series begins to heat up Neville Parnham already has a view to February after winning the $100,000 Magic Millions Gai Waterhouse Crystal Slipper at Ascot with Onemoretwomany.
One of only three horses in the field with race experience having won on debut at the course and distance, it was a case of rinse and repeat for Onemoretwomany at Ascot on Saturday as he led throughout for a 1.75 length win.
With almost $100,000 in prizemoney from his two wins, it all but guarantees the Tassort gelding a start in the $250,000 Magic Millions 2YO WA Classic in February.
Winning trainer Neville Parnham confirmed post-race this is the direction he expects to head with Onemoretwomany.
“We might consider giving him a bit of a break now and bring him back for some of those feature races,” Parnham said.
“I don’t think there’s been any star two-year-olds emerge yet. The trend is to bring them in after Christmas. There may be some very smart ones out there, but he’s a smart one in himself.”
After Brad Parnham took the ride aboard Onemoretwomany on debut, Laqdar Ramoly was reunited with the gelding for the Magic Millions Gai Waterhouse Crystal Slipper.
Ramoly had partnered Onemoretwomany at each of his Belmont trials.
“He (Ramoly) did put a fair bit of work in him and he picked him early days,” Parnham said.
“He said, “boss, I think this is a really nice horse”. And I said, ‘well stick with him and you can ride him. He’s done a fair bit of work and he got the result today.”
Another who poised to be contesting Open company feature races in 2024 is Starry Heights who claimed his fifth straight win at Ascot in Saturday.
Off a short spell, Starry Heights settled midfield behind runners and exploded to the line once space emerged inside the final furlong.
“We’ve still got some ratings points that we can play with, so we’ll just probably find another ratings race for him and he’ll tell us what we need to do with him.”