The Bjorn Baker stable is keeping a lid on expectations for new recruit Caballus, despite the colt posting a brace of impressive barrier trial wins in the lead up to his Rosehill return.
A $1 million yearling, the I Am Invincible three-year-old was originally raced by an ownership group led by Coolmore before he was sold for $315,000 to syndicators Darby Racing through the Inglis Digital platform in October.
A strong winner for Chris Waller at Randwick mid-winter, his form tapered off in the spring to prompt his sale, but Caballus’ new owners are hoping he can recapture some of his early promise, starting in Saturday’s Toyota Forklifts Handicap (1100m) at Rosehill.
“He’s a lovely horse. He has obviously shown he is talented, he’s already had that Sydney win and he’s had a nice transition to the stable,” Baker’s racing manager Luke Hilton said.
“We just want to see him go out and do it on Saturday. There is openness there from us. He has been going really well in his trials, but race day is a different scenario.
“He had a little bit of a boom on him when he was at Chris’, so we’re mindful we want to see him put the writing on the wall.”
Early punters have liked what they’ve seen from Caballus on the trial track, and he has been backed from $3.60 into outright $2.50 favouritism with betting sites.
If he can deliver on Saturday, he will stave off any thoughts of a gelding procedure, at least for now.
“At the moment, we want to try him as a colt. We haven’t made any decisions, he was an expensive yearling,” Hilton said.
“But his attitude has been great, his work has been really good and that has shown in his trials as well.”
Alas, stablemate Thunderlips arrives at the same race having already undergone a gelding procedure following his loss of form in the spring.
He did show enough early ability to earn a Brisbane carnival trip, his efforts highlighted by a sixth to Cifrado in the Group 2 Champagne Classic (1200m) at Doomben, and that is the type of form connections want to see him rediscover.
“He was one that definitely needed it (gelding). He didn’t want to concentrate a lot of the times,” Hilton said.
“Last preparation, especially, was not what we’ve seen from him at home and what we expected of him.
“We will be looking for him to get back to somewhere near what we feel he can do.”