Latest News

By Ray Hickson

She wasn’t cheap and she’s been tricky to work out but there’s no way Charm Stone would be tackling Saturday’s Group 1 $1m Kia Golden Rose (1400m) if trainers Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr didn’t think she was a live chance.

Trainer Michael Kent Jnr (Pic: Bradley Photos)

A $1.55 million purchase as a yearling, Charm Stone showed the stable plenty of early promise but Michael Kent Jnr said since discovering some kind of allergy during her failed Blue Diamond campaign she’s gone from strength to strength.

The secret? Let's just say she might be able to read about it if she's able to win the Golden Rose.

“The trick to her has been boxing her on paper or cardboard,’’ Kent Jnr said.

“She must have a hypersensitive throat to some kind of allergen in the shavings. Since this preparation going onto that type of bedding she’s had no problem whatsoever.

“It’s not common, I know Nature Strip lived on paper and nearly every horse in Hong Kong does.”

That paper based bedding has been shipped to Gerald Ryan and Sterling Alexiou's stables at Rosehill where the filly will stay in Sydney.

Charm Stone did win a Group 3 as a two-year-old but on returning at three she downed smart Queenslander Skirt The Law first-up in the Quezette at Caulfield before her dominant performance in the Atlantic Jewel at Moonee Valley two weeks ago.

That win was particularly strong as a confident, and somewhat arrogant, ride from Damian Lane saw the filly sit wide but still power away over the 1200m.

As the co-trainer says, it’ll be a different set-up for Charm Stone from the inside barrier at her first try at 1400m.

“Damian made a good point about not being worried about being stuck wide, she was able to control the race from there,’’ he said.

“They didn’t go overly hard. She won with authority. It will be a different scenario with barrier one but she has all the hallmarks of a Group 1 type filly.

“She has a good turn of foot, she has stamina and she can sustain a long run. Damian has a lot of belief in her and hopefully we get the breaks at the right time.

“She’s going to have a soft run, he’s going to have plenty of horseflesh at the 300m mark and we hope things open up for us.

“She’s quite tactically versatile so she has a lot of things in her favour. The 1400m is definitely an unknown but she gives us all the indications it will be no problem.”

Of course Price and Kent Jnr won the Golden Rose a year ago with Jacquinot, who swept down the outside to win in the last stride, denying In Secret, and found himself in the TAB Everest where he ran a gallant fifth.

Charm Stone was a $6 chance in the Rose on Wednesday, a similar price to Jacquinot started a year ago and like him she’ll be having her sixth race start. She's the only filly in the race and is aiming to be just the second filly, after Forensics in 2008, to win it.

Kent Jnr said there’s no doubt in the stable that the filly has Group 1 talent and the way things are panning out feels she will have her chance to prove it.

“Mick and I are very fortunate to train a filly like her for such good people,’’ he said.

“They’re people who deserve to get good horses, they invest a lot of money into the industry.

“Clearly she wasn’t cheap but it’s nice when things work out, she’s very classy, she’s a gorgeous type and she’s always had good ability but it’s exciting the way she’s progressed mentally.

“Some horses come out and don’t show up until they mature and they come out of nowhere but she was extremely natural.

Charm Stone is a tough filly!

Next stop: G1 Golden Rose 🌹@MickPriceRacing @LaneDamian pic.twitter.com/hqpGu31mVW

— 7HorseRacing 🐎 (@7horseracing) September 9, 2023

“I don’t mind the barrier. It’s going to be a firm track, it’s the shortest way around, and Rosehill is not the sort of track you want to hook wide and make a long run.

“I know Jacquinot did last year but he’s a special colt. And there’s probably no jockey riding in better form in the country at the moment so hopefully she can get the luck she needs and get a big one.”

Price and Kent Jnr are eyeing a second Golden Eagle, following I’m Thunderstruck two years ago, and Amenable is the horse on the path to the $10 million race on November 4.

The four-year-old, an eye-catching fifth in the Group 1 Memsie Stakes second-up, will race at Caulfield on Saturday and will follow the road laid out by last year’s winner I Wish I Win and contest the Toorak Handicap before heading to Sydney.

“The Toorak has been the right form race for the Golden Eagle the past two years,’’ he said.

“After the Memsie we formed a plan to get him into the Golden Eagle fifth up and that just meant spacing his third and fourth runs so we can keep plenty of petrol in the tank.”

All the fields, form and replays for Saturday's Rosehill meeting