PRAWN BA BA

23rd May 2018

Price Bloodstock’s tough five-year-old Prawn Baba isn’t the type to catch the public imagination but the tough gelding scored his third win of the season at Happy Valley on Wednesday night and he just keeps racking up the stake money.

Being more of a staying type, Prawn Baba doesn’t always find the right set of circumstances to win his races but he rarely puts in a bad race and even with 133 pounds at the top of Class Two, he was able to outstay some handy types to win the night’s major trophy race.

In a race devoid of pacemakers, Olivier Doleuze took Prawn Baba straight to the lead, dictated the terms of the race and kept his unbeaten record on the gelding as he fought off lightweight challenger Winning Faith all the way down the straight.

That took Prawn Baba’s stake earnings to more than $7.6 million from 4 wins from 25 starts and he has not collected a cheque only 7 times. In the current season, his record is even better, missing a cheque just twice in 13 starts and trainer John Size said the gelding is the epitome of consistency.

“He’s won off a 100 rating and that is never easy. Sitting at the top of Class 2 means he has to give away weight to horses that can gallop,” Size said. “And he is very tough physically. He has had some hard racing lately over longer distances but was still able to drop back to 1800m tonight and win. Not many can do that.”

Prawn Baba sometimes gives the impression that he needs longer distances than he will usually find in Hong Kong but his record is showing otherwise.

“Horses that need serious staying distances like 2,400m don’t find many opportunities but he’s now won 3 times at 1,800m, and on all three tracks, and that’s a distance that is a little more available,” Size said.