Flemington debut for Circles Of Gold colt

Coroebus, the latest foal to race out of celebrated broodmare Circles Of Gold, will make his debut for trainer Danny O’Brien at Flemington on Saturday.

A half-brother to star gallopers Elvstroem and Haradasun, the son of Choisir will be one of three runners for O’Brien in Saturday’s $80,000 Eugene Gorman Handicap (1100m), with French Snitzel and Go Public also set to make their debuts.

While O’Brien wasn’t overly bullish about Coroebus winning on Saturday, he said he was already looking towards the spring with the well-bred colt, who finished third in a recent Werribee jumpout.

“He’s a very big colt and he’ll hopefully get out over a bit of distance in the spring,” O’Brien said of the colt that is picture in full flight at the trainer's 13th Beach Training Facility.

“He looks like he’s going to be suited over 2000m and beyond.

“We’ll get him started on Saturday but I think the 1100m will be a bit sharp for him.”

Predicting that Snitzel gelding French Snitzel would also likely be better suited over a bit further than 1100m, O’Brien said Stratum colt Go Public was probably the pick of his three chances.

“Go Public is a bit sharper. He’s the first foal out of a mare we trained called Placement who ran third in a VRC Oaks and he’s a good little colt that is probably better suited at the 1100 on Saturday,” he said.

Another blueblood set to race for O’Brien at Flemington on Saturday is in-form five-year-old Second Bullet.

O’Brien said he had considered running the son of Encosta De Lago and multiple Group 1-winning mare Private Steer in Saturday’s Group 2 Brisbane Cup (2400) but opted instead for the Young Members Ball Handicap (2500m).

“We had the Brisbane Cup on the radar but with the way the weather’s been in Queensland and the fact they’re racing on a new track we’ve taken the conservative option to keep him at home,” O’Brien said.

“At 2000m he seems to always be coming hard again on the line and he ran over 2400m at his last run last preparation at Caulfield and he was only beaten a head that day.

“We’ve been looking to get him up in distance a bit earlier in his preparation this time, he’s obviously only third-up on Saturday and we’ll get a really good indication of how he is at the distance."

Racing.com story by Ben Asgari, to view full story click here