The Listed MRC Blue Diamond Preview (1000m) at Caulfield on Saturday had it’s share of drama with race favourite Eurocanto coming out after playing up in the gates and interference over the concluding stages made for a messy finish with the winner Alibaba not entered for the Group I MRC Blue Diamond Stakes next month.
Third on debut in the Listed MRC Merson Cooper Stakes last spring, the Ken and Kasey Keys trained colt by Alabama Express showed the benefit of that race experience when returning from a brief summer break.
He sprinted off the corner for Craig Newitt to issue a challenge, but laid in quite sharply when inconveniencing Invicto and the very unlucky High Alert.
He was strong all the way to the line to win by half a length over Milsons Point and Invicto with High Alert the run of the race in fourth.
A $115,000 Inglis Classic purchase for Ken Keys Racing from the Yulong draft, Alibaba has banked $174,500 from his first two starts and Kasey Keys revealed the $2million Inglis Millennium might be a nice race for him next month.
“He seemed to just really settle down this prep and we’ve been very happy with him,” said Kasey Keys.
“Full credit to our team at home. He hasn't been the easiest early on.
“We've always known he's had a motor. It was just a matter of when he was going to put it together.
“I think that was the beauty of Craig (Newitt) coming down and trialling him on Monday. He could feel the gears they had under him. So he was full of confidence as well.
“We'll wait and see how he pulls up. Obviously, with a two-year-old, you can't make too many plans ahead and it's one race at a time, but ideally there's the option of heading up to Sydney to the Millennium in a fortnight. So we'll just keep our options open and let him tell us.”
Bred by Yulong, Alibaba is a full brother to stakes-placed Strideaway and is the second foal and second winner from Rowsthorn, a winning Written Tycoon mare from the family of Group III winner Written Dash and stakes-winner Diamonds.
Rowsthorn produced another colt by Lucky Vega last spring and was then covered again by Alabama Express.
Alibaba is the fifth stakes-winner for Alabama Express, who was kept busy at Yulong last spring covering 227 mares at a fee of $66,000.
