Roy Roots jnr will target the Christmas Gift M0 series at Menangle with The Black Prince after he spearheaded a dominant winning treble for the Keinbah trainer on Saturday night at Newcastle.
The Newcastle horse of the year bounced back from a first-up second to take race three (1609 metres) by 13m in 1:55:4. Roots jnr and driver Tom Ison had already won with Miss Streisand and Glengarry Rose.
Miss Streisand had won first-up at Newcastle and improved again to almost break the track record for three-year-old fillies. She worked forward three wide to take the lead and still clocked 1:54:7, which was just 0.3 of a second outside Pixies Parlour’s mark. Six-year-old mare Glengarry Rose led throughout to win in 1:55:8.
“They probably went a little bit better than I thought they were going,” Roots jnr said. “The filly did it quite easy, Black Prince looked more back to himself and Glengarry Rose was just really good. Tom drove them all well, so it was a good night.”
Roots jnr said The Black Prince, the group 2 Carousel champion, was being aimed at the Chariots Of Fire for four-year-olds but he would first take on M0 company in the Christmas Gift heats for a spot in the $30,000 final.
“He was among the top ones last year and I think he’s a bit stronger and mature now,” he said of The Black Prince measuring up to the best in his age. “He’s just one of those horses that seems to race better when he’s racing good horses.”
Meanwhile, Roots jnr will head to Menangle in two weeks with recent addition Glenferrie Typhoon, a group 1-winning trotter.
Roots jnr bought Glenferrie Typhoon, which was won $519,419 in stakes and 31 races in 63 starts, to target the Great Southern Star race, which it won last year, in January in Melbourne.
Glengarry Rose will head back to Menangle class.
“She’s run a few placings down there and she seems to have found a new lease on life, so I’ll probably look at taking her back there soon,” he said.
