Hawke’s Bay Hurdle (3100m) winner The Midnight Shift (NZ) (He’s Remarkable) will do his future racing in Australia.
The Paul Mirabelli-trained gelding has been sold to Australian interests after his 5-1/2 length win in the jumping feature last month and will join Clayton Douglas’ Sale barn.
It was just the second jumping victory for the son of He’s Remarkable and Mirabelli said he was more hopeful than confident heading into the race.
“I went there with a very open mind,” Mirabelli said. “He had only won the maiden (hurdle) the weekend before and we went down there just to see how he measured up to the other horses.
“I knew he was really well because his work during the week had been excellent. I wasn’t confident, but I was hopeful, and it was an awesome result.”
With The Midnight Shift’s imminent departure, Mirabelli is looking forward to working with a number of juveniles in his Cambridge barn.
“I have got quite a few two-year-olds that are coming up, which are quite exciting,” he said.
“Hopefully they can transfer that over to trials and raceday.”
