By Tayla Dyke

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Thursday morning’s official Caulfield trials offered the first public glimpse of some of Victoria’s most exciting juvenile prospects, with a strong field of two-year-olds stepping out on the Heath track.

The opening heat over 1000 metres for the older horses saw Tropicus (Too Darn Hot), a last–start winner of the Heath 1100 (Gr 3, 1100m), edge out a quality field in a blanket finish that included Group 1 winner Giga Kick (Scissor Kick) and Grahame Begg’s progressive mare Niance (Swiss Ace).

Bred and raced by Kia Ora Stud, the four-year-old entire is being aimed at the Schillaci Stakes (Gr 2, 1100m) back at Caulfield on Saturday week.

“We are very happy with him,” Kia Ora Stud’s racing manager Luke Wilkinson told ANZ News. “He is a horse that loves Caulfield and loves 1100 metres. We had an idea of maybe running him in the Manikato, and then we decided to just step through our grades. 

“We won a Group 3 last start, so we’re aiming to try to win a Group 2 in the Schillaci. He’s a horse that races best fresh and spacing his runs, and Sam and Anthony are doing a fantastic job.”

The second heat, contested over 800 metres, was taken out by Profiteer (Capitalist) colt Commit for trainers Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr. 

A $90,000 purchase from the Lime Country Thoroughbreds draft at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale in January, he stopped the clock at 48.44 seconds in a small field of three as he defeated Senza Nome (Yes Yes Yes) by 0.1 lengths, with Stomping Ground (Astern) a further 2.9 lengths behind in the final spot.

The juvenile fillies’ division began with a standout performance from Face The Wild (Wild Ruler), trained by Tony and Calvin McEvoy. The filly pinged the gates to score by 1.8 lengths in 47.56 seconds, leaving Lindsay Park-trained duo Torture, a $250,000 Karaka yearling by Cambridge Stud’s first crop sire Sword Of State (Snitzel) and a half-brother to Group 1 winner Ruthless Dame (Tavistock), and La Gitana, a $400,000 Inglis Easter Yearling Sale purchase by Coolmore freshman Home Affairs (I Am Invincible), chasing home.

Raced in the silks of First Light Racing, Face The Wild was purchased for $55,000 at the 2024 Inglis Australian Weanling Sale from the Alma Vale/Kitchwin Hills draft before then being bought by First Light and her trainers for $150,000 at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale earlier this year.

“It was a really nice trial, she’s a nice filly, very professional, which she’s shown all the way through,” Calvin McEvoy told ANZ News. 

“We’ve been really pleased with the development she’s taken physically and she’s got a nice pedigree. She’s really taking us all the way at the moment, so all going well, she’ll be here in the Debutant Stakes.”

The filly is from the maiden crop of Newgate Farm’s exciting first-season sire Wild Ruler (Snitzel), who will be represented by The Wildling in the Gimcrack Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m) at Randwick on Saturday, and is out of a First Light-raced Charge Forward (Red Ransom) mare, Face Forward.

“Wild Ruler is a stallion that we, as a team, are very keen on, and being out of a Charge Forward mare has always been a plus. We had Sunlight, who’s out of a Charge Forward mare,” McEvoy said.

First Light Racing director Tim Wilson echoed McEvoy’s sentiment.

“She’s been very professional for a little while,” Wilson told ANZ News. “Calvin let us know a month ago that he worked up a dozen two-year-olds at Ballarat and she put her hand up to say she was as good as any of them.

“When you’ve got Tony and Calvin, who have got a two-year-old record the envy of any stable in terms of the quality of two-year-olds they produced from the numbers they have for their system, it gets you pretty excited when they tell you that yours is close to the best they’ve got.”

Wilson has long held ties to the filly’s family, having raced her dam Face Forward, who provided his operation with its first stakes-quality runner in its early stages a decade ago.

“We raced Mum, she was our first genuine, stakes-quality horse in our very early days. She won consecutive races down the straight at Flemington … Face Forward was our first proper stakes horse, even though she didn’t win a stakes race, she did run fifth in a Listed race at Flemington, but she carried 60 kilos that day and got beat by a boy, carrying 56 [kilograms]. So she was the best horse in it at stakes level,” Wilson said.

“Given our connection with the family, she [Face The Wild] was just one that we had to have and we were delighted to get her. A few of the Face Forward owners from the day, ten years ago, have gone into ownership. Probably the only mistake we’ve made with her was we didn’t keep a share for ourselves – we fully syndicated her, and she looks elite.”

Wilson was also taken by the stock of first-season sire Wild Ruler, and his confidence in the stallion has grown since, as with the filly.

“They seem to be nice horses,” he said. “We didn’t go to Magic Millions specifically seeking out the stallion, but I did really like what we saw from his yearlings at the sales. So we ended up buying two. The other filly [out of Saratoga Treasure] goes really well too – she’s jumping out on [Friday at Moe] for Mick Huglin.

“The two we’ve had through our system are both very professional, early running types. It was a bit of a punt, as it always is, when you go on a first-season stallion, but he was a son of Snitzel, so that’s the main box ticked for him.”

Having impressed at home and at Caulfield on Thursday, Wilson is confident Face The Wild can make her presence felt when she steps out under raceday conditions, with the filly aiming to start in the Debutant Stakes (Listed, 1000m) at Caulfield on Wednesday, October 15.

“I know the boys were considering putting her down the straight at Flemington last week to get to the Maribyrnong Trial, which had a bit of nostalgia about it because I remember how much mum used to love the straight, but the Debutant Stakes would be a real feather in her cap so early in her career,” Wilson said.

“It’s obviously a very good race historically, King’s Gambit won it, so it can certainly produce an elite two-year-old, but given she’s been around Caulfield this morning, she’s won her jump out really stylishly and ran really good time compared to the boys as well, you’d like to think she goes there and she’s a terrific chance.”

The final heat of the morning clocked the fastest time of the day (47.23), with Free Flying (Snitzel) doing just that to score by a length over Tuzemak (Prague), with Dance The Boogie (Extreme Warrior) closely behind in third.

Raced in the bottle green silks of Yulong, Free Flying was a $750,000 purchase for James Bester from Coolmore at the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale and is trained by Ben, Will and JD Hayes. 

Out of star mare Ennis Hill (Fastnet Rock), who was also trained by the Hayes camp, the filly hails from the family of Hips Don’t Lie (Stravinsky), Lake Geneva (Fastnet Rock), Acrobat (Fastnet Rock) and Learning To Fly (Justify).

“It was a really nice trial,” Ben Hayes told ANZ News. “It’s a family that we know well. We actually trained Ennis Hill and she was an early type of horse as well. So to see her improve so much from her first to second and win her trial nicely, it gives us a lot of hope.

“We’ll see how she pulls up and if she pulls up well, she’ll put her hand up to look at maybe the Debutant, so we’ll just monitor how she is and we’ll go from there and hopefully she can get herself there.

“Yulong are in her and there’s all the other people, good supporters of our stables, so if she’s able to be fast and get some black type early, it’s all a bonus and I’m really looking forward to seeing how she goes.”