The outstanding run of Ole Kirk’s first crop continues with smart two-year-old Prestige Ole taking out the VRC VOBIS Gold Plate over 1400m at Flemington on Saturday 29th March.
Trained by David Brideoake and Matt Jenkins, the colt travelled strongly in the early stages of running and produced an impressive display in the home straight to win comfortably by a long neck, despite a step up in distance and class.
Winning jockey Ben Allen was quick to praise the colt’s effort post-race:
“He was super today. There was a nice bit of heat early, which allowed me to get into a spot and he travelled good. We had the main chances in front of us, but he had them covered a long way out.
“He’s showing maturity beyond his years. He’s pulled up absolutely super. The team have done a very good job getting him here in this order.
“He was very tractable in the run and upping the trip suited him and I think he’ll get further”, said Allen.
The colt’s victory capped off a big week for his co-trainers and Hong Kong-based owner Eric Yeung, who celebrated success with another of Ole Kirk’s progeny seven days prior when exciting colt Prestige Forever won the Listed MVRC Moonee Valley Pearl.
“We’ve had a good run with the Prestige colours, so Eric will be pretty happy, he’s coming over next week so I think he’d be very happy with this horse, he’s done a good job,” said David Brideoake.
“Interestingly he was quite a speedy horse initially, but he’s got a good laid-back attitude and he settled quite well today which was good to see.
“That opens up a whole lot of options for you as a two-year-old and maybe going forward as a three-year-old to the mile.”
Prestige Ole is now three starts for two wins, having broken his maiden at Ballarat on the 7th of March. He was a $70,000 purchase for his owner and is the second foal out the Stakes-placed Exceed and Excel mare Major Wager, who is from the family of Group One Victoria Derby winner Amalfi.
He is one of eight individual first crop winners – including three at Stakes level – for Ole Kirk, who is the leading first season sire by earnings. This is a remarkable feat for a horse that has only had 14 runners to date and who was a superior three-year-old himself.
