The ground-breaking miRunners colt, Saganaki, impressed his trainer, his jockey and his owners all at once as he ran his first trial at Wyong this morning.

Making the jump nicely, Saganaki quickly adjusted to the racing environment and ran a comfortable fourth.

RECENT NEWS: Mick Price announced as trainer for second horse

As it was his first ever trial, the result was secondary to the observations made about Saganaki’s actions: how we reacted to the jump, to the barrier and to the other horses.

WATCH THE RACE HERE

Trainer Kris Lees was very pleased.

“He got away nice, he was quite tractable around this tight, turning track. Under almost-race conditions, he handled things really well: the track was very heavy so it was the first time he’d felt soft ground like that after such a dry winter,” said Lees

“Against some nicely bred opposition he acquitted himself quite well and we’ll take a lot out of today.

“We’ll see how he comes through and how far we push forward with his preparation but we’ll let him get over today’s first outing and make an assessment in the next few days. If he comes through it nicely we’ll look to trial him again in a fortnight.”

 Jockey Aaron Bullock was also pleased.

“I don’t mind him: he began beautiful and put himself on the bridle straight away,” said Bullock,

“In the barriers and in the trial he was fine, good as gold. He’s still learning what it’s all about but that’s to be expected as it was only his first trial and he’s only going to improve and improve until he gets to the grade.

“I don’t mind the little fella.”

The great news is that while Saganaki may be the first miRunners horse, he will not be the last.

Mick Price has been announced as trainer of the next miRunners horse, which we are planning to purchase at the Gold Coast Magic Millions sales in January.

Race video courtesy of Racing NSW.