Sharper Amenable first-up at Flemington races

Without a win in a Stakes race to hang his future on as a stallion, Amenable returns for an autumn campaign at Flemington as a gelding.

Not seen since running fourth in the Group 1 Toorak Handicap (1600m) at Caulfield last October, Amenable runs first-up as a gelding in the Group 3 Shaftesbury Avenue Handicap (1400m) on Saturday.

The Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr-trained Amenable showed promise as three-year-old being a dual placegetter at Stakes level along with an unlucky fifth in the Group 1 Australian Guineas.

At the end of his spring campaign, Kent Jnr said it was an easy decision to geld Amenable and for the four-year-old to concentrate on being a racehorse.

“There wasn’t stud masters jumping out of trees to bid on Amenable, so it was an easy decision, and it looks like, so far, we have been vindicated,” Kent Jnr said.

“And he was always going to benefit with maturity. He was always behind other horses, maturity wise, and I think now he’s catching up now.”

Amenable had previously been slow to begin, but in two Cranbourne jump-outs last month the four-year-old has improved his barrier manners.

“He’s definitely more switched on, but he’s always been a talented horse,” Kent Jnr said.

“He seems to be leaving the barriers a lot sharper now and he’s carrying less excess, and Damian Lane made the comment in his last trial that he seems to have come to hand a bit quicker now that he’s not an entire and carrying the bulk a normal colt would.

“He’s always shown the potential that he could win a nice, big handicap one day.

“He got very close in the Toorak and ran very well in the Memsie last spring, so hopefully we can kick off the prep in winning fashion.”

Amenable is entered for the Group 1 Doncaster Mile (1600m) at Randwick on the opening day of The Champions, and Kent Jnr said that was a race they would like to target.

“I think if he runs really well, we will look to go to Sydney with him,” Kent Jnr said.

“He is entered in the Doncaster, and if he pleases us first-up and second-up, and gets into the race, that’s where we would like to go.”