Grand Syndicates was doing its best to keep its feet on the ground after Leonchroi’s win at Caulfield on Monday, but Blake Shinn’s words might encourage them to aim up with the Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr-trained three-year-old.
Melbourne’s leading jockey described the gelding as possibly a ‘South Australian Derby type of horse’ after partnering him to an impressive win in the $55,000 Anthem Workwear Plate (1800m) on the Heath track.
But for Grand Syndicates’ racing manager Steve Leoni, the aim was to just get a win on the board.
“He’s as green as the grass as he’s racing on, he’s got some scope, but where he ends up, I don’t know,” Leoni said.
“The aspiration was to the win a maiden and if he proves to be progressive, maybe the South Australian Derby (might be an option), but the aim was just to win a maiden.”
The son of Contributer, who started $3 favourite, did that by a half-neck when he surged late after being held up rounding the bend to run down the Symon Wilde-trained American Gas ($4.20) with Move The Torana almost two lengths away third.
It was just the second start for Leonchroi, who was bought for $42,500 out of the Karaka Yearling Sale, and Shinn said there is plenty more to come.
“He’s a nice horse, but he’s a long way off the finished product,” Shinn said.
“I liked his last 100 and the feeling he gave me was he could be a South Australian Derby-type of horse, but time will tell.
“He’s in the right hands and they’ll know where to place him and put him on the right path.”
Leonchroi’s win came in the second race on the Super Bowl Monday card, which followed an on-course NFL event that attracted more than 1000 people to watch the Super Bowl from New Orleans, which was won in effortless fashion by the Philadelphia Eagles.
