IVICTORY

29th April 2018

Price Bloodstock gained another Hall Of Fame entry in the Group One Chairman’s Sprint Prize on Sunday at Sha Tin when Ivictory probably jumped a couple of classes on his way to winning the international sprint.

Barely out of Class Two and thrown in against the best short course horses Hong Kong could produce, along with Group One visitors from Japan and Britain, Ivictory defied his disadvantages at the ratings with a brave display of speed racing that his rivals could not answer.

Even running Ivictory in a race like that was so unlike Size that punters took it as a guide to his confidence in the horse and he was a heavily-supported to win the race even as the lowest-rated runner.

“That’s true but this was a unique set of circumstances with Ivictory,” Size explained. “His win rate was so good and they have been emphatic victories the last couple, including a track record time. So I thought we could try the Group One, even if it might be one run too early for him. The race was there, the horse was flying and the market said he could do it. For some other horse, it might not have fit but for this one, today, it did.”

Top jockey Zac Purton echoed Size’s thoughts, that Ivictory had looked the goods but said he had now come through the acid test.

“You never know they’ll step up to this grade until you put them out there,” he said. “But the race set up for him to produce his best and he has.”

The win was Ivictory’s seventh in just 8 starts so his best may still be ahead but the first Group One pushed his prizemoney earnings through $14 million.

Size indicated that Ivictory might now be spelled for the rest of the season so he could then be prepared for the Hong Kong Sprint in December.