In a talent pool that was ocean deep last season, Gold Bullion was quite rightly cast into shadow. But with a little more time and a step up in distance, the classically bred colt is hinting that he may well make his own headlines before this season is out.
At only his third career start, the Gai Waterhouse-Adrian Bott trained individual savaged the line to collect the AUD55,000 Ladbroke It! Plate (1500m) at Sandown (Australia) and give every indication he has the capacity to step up in both grade and distance.
“Gold Bullion took out his maiden in style at Sandown today,” summarized Waterhouse.
“This son of Savabeel has all the hallmarks of his sire.”
Savabeel made great leaps forward in the spring of his three-year-old season, developing from a highly promising juvenile into a G1 Cox Plate and G1 Spring Champion Stakes winner – a trait many of his better progeny carry.
Gold Bullion will need to earn his way into contention for elite spring races alongside the likes of Militarize and Don Corleone but he may well just do it.
The gelding jumped well under jockey Blake Shinn and settled one out, one back in the seven strong field. Shinn was content to hold his position until the home corner but had to be patient as a rival slide wide on the corner forcing him wider again. Gold Bullion quickly set out after the free rolling Limburg, gathered him in and kept at his task under the urgings of his rider.
“It was a beautiful ride by Blake [Shinn] to get out of that headwind in the back straight,” stable representative Rebecca Shanks told media post-race.
“His form in Sydney is good. [Gold Bullion] found the 1200m a bit short first-up when pipped on the line. He was always going to appreciate the step-up to the 1500m being a Savabeel out of a So You Think mare.
Gold Bullion was an AUD400,000 purchase at the 2022 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, justifying his inclusion among the usual targeting of early maturing colts with his own natural athleticism and physicality.
The three-year-old gelding carries the influence of elite classic performers So You Think and Oratorio as his broodmare sire and grand-broodmare sire but the lower half of his pedigree is all speed and precocity.
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