Turn Me Loose is set to get a belated shot at an Australian Group One race after his second stakes victory within a week in the Group Two Crystal Mile.
Turn Me Loose, winner of the Group One 2000 Guineas in New Zealand last year, was in Sydney for the autumn but returned home after getting travel sickness.
Baker said a cancelled race meeting earlier this season at Hastings put Turn Me Loose behind the eight ball and put any chance of going for a Cox Plate on the backburner.
Turn Me Loose scored a front-running win in the Seymour Cup last Sunday and led all the way in Saturday’s Group Two Crystal Mile at Moonee Valley under jockey Opie Bosson, defeating the fast-finishing Bow Creek with Toorak Handicap winner Lucky Hussler third.
The Group One Emirates Stakes (1600m) at Flemington is his planned next target.
“We think we’re getting him right now,” trainer Murray Baker said.
“We’ve had a lot of problems with him. We took him to Sydney for the autumn and he got travel sickness. He ran shocking in a trial there and we had to bring him home. But he’s starting to fire now.”
“He’s a powerful galloper. He can run those sectionals and it makes it hard to pick him up from behind.”
Bosson and Baker have already combined to win a Caulfield Cup with Mongolian Khan and the Seymour Cup this spring and the jockey said Turn Me Loose was a horse that can race keen early but has a high cruising speed when he gets into his rhythm.
“And when you ask him for a sprint, he’s got a long consistent sprint as well,” Bosson said.
Jockey James McDonald was thrilled with the eye-catching performance of Bow Creek to charge to within a ha;f length of the winner in his first Australian start, and said he got held up at a crucial stage.
Lucky Hussler finished 2-1/2 lengths away.
