Miss Roumbini ridden by Ethan Brown wins the Evergreen Turf Handicap at Sportsbet Sandown Hillside Racecourse on June 15, 2024 in Springvale, Australia. (Photo by Scott Barbour/Racing Photos)
Mick Price would love to be as pleasantly by Miss Roumbini this week at Caulfield as he was at her previous start at Sandown.
The three-year-old justified heavy market support – $4.20 into $3.40 – to score a dominant win over 1300 metres, despite travelling wide on a day it was best to be closest to the fence.
Price, who trains in partnership with Michael Kent Jnr, said the level of her performance exceeded expectations and a strong piece of work last weekend has him confident she has come on from that.
“I thought she was well-suited in the race and would run well, but I didn’t expect that,” Price said.
“She worked super on Saturday morning. She went ‘bang’ the last furlong and bounced out of the ground.”
Miss Roumbini was nominated for the 1440-metre open three-year-old event and the 1200m race for fillies at Caulfield with Price and Kent opting for the former, for which she is the $3.40 favourite with online bookmakers.
The Sandown success was Miss Roumbini’s second career win, but first of this campaign, which started with a second placing to Apparatus at Pakenham on May 30, and Price said she had benefitted from maturity.
This campaign is about making the most of that and getting the daughter of Zoustar and Fastnet Rock mare Bleu Roche in a position to attack better races in campaigns to come.
“She was a first foal and she was always a slight filly but now she’s furnished,” Price said of the $550,000 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale purchase.
“I think I’ve got to build her rating up, and her prizemoney, so that’s what I’ll be doing this time of year.”
Ethan Brown has ridden Miss Roumbini at her two runs this time and retains the ride at Caulfield with the pair to jump from barrier three in the field of 12.