Joe Pride is only too happy with the lack of tricks he's found with recent stable acquisition Mr Bogart – except for one which might have stumped a few punters earlier this week.
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"He's a fairly uncomplicated horse, but he's actually a gelding and he still might be listed as a colt," Pride said of Mr Bogart, later rectified in form references to suggest he had not been spared the snip.
Perhaps that is one reason to explain Mr Bogart's seamless transition into Pride's Warwick Farm base, which has fuelled the trainer with enough confidence to throw the Gooree-owned three-year-old in the deep end at Rosehill on Saturday.
Having gone amiss after a couple of two-year-old starts for Anthony Cummings – including a group 2 placing behind Valentia in the Skyline Stakes – Pride has played the patience game with Mr Bogart. Until now.
"He had an injury after his two-year-old campaign and we have to be realistic in the fact he's only a [Kembla Grange] maiden winner [last start], but he is a horse with plenty of ability and we're going to get a pretty good guide on where he fits after this race," Pride said.
"I don't usually do that [take them from provincials to Saturday grade] with my horses; [I] generally try to find a midweek race for them as the next step. But the race was there and we looked like we've run into a really hot race."
But the son of Northern Meteor will need to measure up if Pride is to plough on with group 1 ambitions for Mr Bogart this autumn, having thrown in an entry for the Australian Guineas.
"I think he will get a mile in time and that [Australian Guineas] will be clearer after Saturday," he said.
Mr Bogart will bump into a field of emerging types in the fifth, including Godolphin's resuming Sarajevo, not beaten far in the $1 million group 1 Golden Rose, and smart debutant winners Zestful and Eyre. Sarajevo was a $2.50 favourite with Ladbrokes on Thursday evening, with Mr Bogart ($9) on the fifth line of betting.
Pride doesn't have to shuffle through betting charts quite that much to find Alias in the pecking order, a $4.20 favourite in the last.
Having failed to adapt to Hong Kong after three disappointing starts for Pride's mentor John Size in the Asian racing mecca, Alias has won four of his six Australian starts, spanning back to the start of last year.
"He loves the rain and is a good wet-tracker. I don't know if he would be in the race – and by that I mean really competitive – if it was dry ground on Saturday," Pride said. "He's had a long summer campaign and he'll have a good break until winter, when we'll try to find a few more wet tracks with him."
Stablemate Earnest Ernest will form a two-pronged attack for Pride on the race with Adorabeel, an eye-catcher when steaming home second-up, well in the market in the third.
"She's ready for a peak performance," Pride said. "I was very happy with her the other day and she's getting closer to a win."
