Darryl Sherer
When Julius Sandhu and a some golf buddies committed to going in a racehorse, they never expected to acquire one capable of winning its first three starts.
But that’s exactly what they have, after Princeton Spirit (NZ) (Nadeem) won Friday night’s Grosvenor Engineering Group Handicap (1600m) at Moonee Valley.
The four-year-old added the $35,000 benchmark 64 to victories in a maiden at Geelong and a BM64 at Racing.com Park (Pakenham) to maintain a dream initiation into ownership for Sandhu, who also works for the gelding’s trainer Mick Kent.
“A couple of friends and I played golf together for a fair while and the conversation came up about buying a horse and then we found him in New Zealand,” Sandhu said.
“Michael (Kent) Jnr went over and picked him out and we had a bit of a chat and we said, ‘OK, we’ll get involved’ and here we are.
“This is my first one (horse). I guess it’s beginners luck, but hopefully may it long continue.”
Just like at Geelong and Pakenham, Stephanie Thornton was aboard at The Valley and had Princeton Spirit in a dominant position before getting him home narrowly.
At the line the $2.80 favourite had a long neck to spare over the Litta Bita Spunk ($7) with Canelo ($10) 3.75 lengths away third.
Sandhu said Princeton Spirit was likely to maintain her unbeaten status for a few months at least with the part-owner suggesting the son of Nadeem would be off for a spell.
“He’s really done the job for us this prep,” he said. “We’re really happy, I mean, he’s three from three, and we can’t ask for much more than that I suppose.
“I think we’ll tip him out now and give him a short break then bring him back post-Christmas and take it from there.
“Physically it will do him well, but I think he can do with a mental break, too.”
The victory atoned for a near-miss earlier in the night for Thornton, who had to settle for a nose second aboard Star Patriot in the race won by $101 shot Rock Away. -racing.com