Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr won’t be aiming too high in the spring with Gunstock despite his impressive win at Caulfield.
Gunstock took out the ‘last bid’ Caulfield Cup ballot exemption race, the Group 3 Coongy Cup (2000m) on Wednesday, in easy fashion.
Sent out the $2.45 favourite under Jamie Kah, Gunstock registered a three-length win from Yonkers ($4.20) with Aurora’s Symphony ($41) a further 1-½ lengths away third.
Gunstock was having his second run back from a long break and relished the soft conditions, which was downgraded to the heavy range, following Wednesday’s race.
The now four-year-old won the Group 3 Caulfield Stakes (2000m) at last year’s Caulfield Cup Carnival before going on to run down the track in the Group 1 Victoria Derby (2500m).
Following that run, Gunstock pulled-up with ‘issues’ and was not seen again until finishing second at Flemington on September 18.
“A couple of scratchings came out and made it nice and Johnny Get Angry leading and taking us into the race was good,” Price said.
“He’s not a bad horse. The VRC Derby, 2500 metres, we had to clean him up after that, but I think he’s got a good 2400 metre race in him, whether that be Bendigo or Geelong (Cups) or even the last day of the carnival.
“He won’t be a summer horse and his 81 rating probably goes to 90-something quickly, but if he has another two starts and we look after him over the summer we’ll have a nice autumn horse.”
Kah was able to position Gunstock on the girth of the leader Johnny Get Angry but was left in front when that horse began to drop back through the field at the 500m mark.
“The way he was travelling I knew I was going to get there too soon,” Kah said.
“I really wanted us to have something to track coming to the turn but he’s taken a lot of improvement since his first-up run.
“The team has brought him here in spot on condition and he wouldn’t have blown a candle out the way he pulled up.
“That was just too easy for him.”