The first week of winter is possibly not the time to see a two-year-old starting his campaign that could shape their spring.
Normally the two-year-olds with spring aspirations are in Brisbane before a short break in the winter sun or just about to return to work after an autumn carnival campaign.
For Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young, they want to get the runs on the board with Sunsource to see whether he has true Spring Carnival aspirations.
After flopping in the Magic Millions 2YO Classic at the Gold Coast in January, Sunsource makes his return in The Royal Children’s Hospital Trophy (1200m) at Flemington on Saturday.
Sunsource won on debut in the Magic Million Ballarat 2YO Classic last November before travelling north to run third at Doomben two weeks before the Gold Coast assignment.
“He went super first-up, second-up he was raw, green, and got it all wrong in a small field at Doomben and in his third start, he shouldn’t have been there,” Busuttin said.
“He’d had enough, he raced like a horse that had had enough and it wasn’t a true indication of the horse, but it is hard to turn up your nose up at $2 million when you’re up there.
“In hindsight, we should have brought him home after his Doomben run.”
Busuttin said Sunsource had spelled well and had trialled nicely ahead of his return run on Saturday.
He said Saturday’s outing was all about education for the spring and was a nice time to have the colt back in work, while along the way there is some nice prize money to be won, including Saturday’s race worth $150,000.
“At his first two starts, he didn’t know what he was doing,” Busuttin said.
“It’s all very well saying you have a spring horse, but you have to teach them to race and if he is to be a spring horse, he has to win a couple of races and he’ll want to win that race on Saturday.
“Don’t worry, everything is geared towards spring, but he’ll tell us if that is where he’s going.”