Craig Kerry
Watching the rise of Doncaster contender and two-time group 1 winner Autumn Boy has been tough for Joe Ible.
The Kembla Grange trainer believed he had found a potential top-liner in Souad, a $42,500 Merchant Navy filly out of Savabeel mare Rosegarden, before losing her to a broken leg following an adverse reaction to penicillin after just two starts as a two-year-old.
Autumn Boy, second elect for Saturday’s Doncaster, was the next progeny of Rosegarden and provided an indication of what have been with Souad, on and off the track.
The emergence of Barrengarry, though, has eased the pain for Ible, who will test the staying prospect at stakes level for the first time on Saturday in the group 3 Carbine Club Stakes (1600m) for three-year-olds at Randwick.
“That one stung a little bit,” Ible said of Souad. “She was a beautiful filly and she was shaping up really good, but this guy I would say he’s comfortably the best I’ve had.
“It’s very exciting. He’s the sort of horse you wait for, and he’s just getting started.”
Barrengarry broke through at Newcastle over 1400m at his third start then backed it up with a Midway Handicap (1500m) victory at Rosehill to open Golden Slipper day two weeks ago. Ible is eyeing the group 1 Queensland Derby (2400m) at Eagle Farm on May 30 with the Ghaiyyath gelding.
“He’s very progressive, he’s taken the steps we’ve put in front of him so far and this looks like a nice progression to test him against some of the better three-year-olds,” Ible said of the Carbine Club, where he drew the extreme outside in 14 on Wednesday.
“We are looking at the Queensland Derby and while staying at a mile probably isn’t ideal, I think he probably lacks practice, compared to some of the others.
“We’d like to go to the Frank Packer Plate and this just leads nicely into it. If he runs a good race in this grade over the mile, stepping up to the 2000m a fortnight later would be ideal.
“We could have waited and trialled, but I’m not sure that benefits him long term. I think more race practice is what he needs. Get into a high-pressure race then look at the Frank Packer.”
Ible paid $10,000 for Barrengarry at the Inglis 2024 Ready2Race Sale after seeing untapped potential in his dam.
“I trained his mother [Bella Amante], she won three from not many starts and had lots of issues,” he said.
“She showed a lot of potential, but we never got to see it. And we liked the progeny of Ghaiyyath, so it ticked a lot of boxes to me.”
Barrengarry’s Golden Slipper day win was a highlight for Ible, who had his first runner in 2012 and now a team of 20 at his hometown track. He hopes Barrengarry can give him a first stakes grade success on Saturday and help grow his stable.
“I’d like to progress to a team of 40, but I’m also happy with the quality we have now,” he said.
“You can expand and just get a lot of slow ones and be travelling everywhere, so I like to focus on the young ones and try to build a nice stable.”
