Up-and-comer Taken recorded his sixth win from only 12 career starts with another impressive performance in the A$150,000 A Caulfield Kind Of Summer Handicap (1700m) at Caulfield on Saturday.
The New Zealand-bred gelding made a big impression with his progress through the grades last year, stringing together five consecutive victories at Pakenham on April 24, Sandown on May 24, Flemington on June 7, Flemington on June 21 and Caulfield on November 15.
That winning sequence came to an end when he was unplaced in the A$1 million Supernova (1400m) at Pakenham on December 13, but Taken bounced back to form in style on Saturday.
The four-year-old was ridden by Jamie Melham and took up a position on the outside of the front-running Slane before kicking away at the top of the straight. His six rivals tried to reel him in down the straight but made little headway, and Taken went on to score comfortably by a length.
Trained by Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr, Taken has now had 12 starts for six wins, five placings and A$489,360 in prize-money.
“We were a bit perplexed after his performance in the Supernova,” Price and Kent’s racing manager Tom Sheahan said. “We ran over him with the vet and nothing was amiss. He’d run really well fresh before that, and it’s possible he was just a little bit dull second-up. We did also throw him in at the deep end.
“We just took stock after that, gave him a nice tick-over trial in between, and as you saw today, he’s back up and firing.
“The race worked out perfectly. We had him dual-accepted in Sydney as well, but this race came up light in numbers. The map looked super. We thought we’d be able to sit outside the lead, travel and win.
“The 1700m is a new box that he’s just ticked today, so that might open up a few more doors for him going forward.”
Originally prepared in New Zealand by Sam Mynott, Taken was sold to the Price-Kent stable following a trial win at Tauranga.
By Waikato Stud’s emerging young sire Ardrossan, Taken is out of the Henrythenavigator mare Katherine Wright and stems from the same family as Ardrossan’s Group Three winner Beau Dazzler.
Taken was bred by the Dewar Partnership, which was put together to support Ardrossan when he launched at stud by some people who raced the Group One-performed son of Redoute’s Choice. – NZ Racing Desk.
