The Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott training partnership quickly put aside the disappointment of missing a Group One victory on New Year’s Day with Whosyourmaster.
This was when they produced a pair of promising three-year-olds to break their maiden status at Tauranga just 24 hours later.
Talented filly Suffire ended a frustrating run of minor placings to score with ridiculous ease over 1600 metres in the third race on the day with Sound Proposition, a son of current sire sensation Savabeel, matching his stablemate just one race later.With both gallopers holding nominations for major three-year-old classics later in the summer, O’Sullivan was delighted the pair had produced encouraging displays as he looks to step both of them out over greater distances in the near future.
“Suffire has been a little luckless in her races so far in this campaign but everything fell into place for her at Tauranga and I think she showed she will only get better as she starts to get up to a middle distance from now on,” he said.“She is strengthening up all the time and while she does hold a New Zealand Derby nomination I think it’s more likely she will head towards the New Zealand Oaks instead.
“Sound Proposition is also a Derby contender but we have to be a little more circumspect with him as he’s not as robust as the filly.“He has any amount of ability but we will need to manage his workload carefully to get him to the race.”
O’Sullivan was also quick to acknowledge the superb effort of his star sprinter Whosyourmaster who went within a whisker of capturing the Gr. 1 Railway Stakes at Ellerslie when beaten a nose by Matamata mare In Style.“We set him for the race eight months ago and we failed by a nose to pull it off,” he said ruefully.
“When you get that close to completing the plan it can be a little hard to swallow but he tried his heart out and you can’t ask any more of them.”Whosyourmaster will now head to Trentham for the Gr. 1 J&N Berkett Telegraph where O’Sullivan is hopeful he can go one place better on the day.
