Nominations for the A$5 million All-Star Mile (1600m) opened this week with two New Zealand-trained horses already putting their hand up for a tilt at the world’s richest mile race.
The Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman-trained Aegon and Emma-Lee and David Browne-trained Elephant have both been nominated.
Freshly crowned New Zealand Champion Three-Tear-Old Aegon was in All-Star Mile contention in this year with connections chasing a wildcard into the race last autumn.
However, it never came to fruition for the galloper, who has won five of his 10 starts.
The Browne stable enjoyed incredible success in Australia through the spring, taking home a stack of prizemoney with their “zoo” stars – Elephant and Rhinoceros.
Group Three winner Elephant is set to draw a lot of attention from voters given his name and cult following he developed while racing in Australia.
Meanwhile, exciting four-year-old I’m Thunderstruck is back preparing for his autumn campaign, where his probable targets are The All-Star Mile and the Gr.1 Doncaster Mile (1600m).
“I actually saw the horse yesterday,” OTI chief executive Terry Henderson said.
“He’s put on a lot of muscle, in fact, he doesn’t look a heavy horse, but he’s weighing far more than he did last prep.
“He looks like a far more mature horse than he did early in spring, which is not untypical of Shockings. He looked fantastic.
“He started work yesterday, he’ll have three works’ work at Leneva Park, and then he’ll head down to Cranbourne in three weeks’ time.”
To be held at Flemington on March 19, nominations for the All Star Mile are open until January 10, but late entries can be received up to January 17 to allow connections of horses who perform well in the Gr.1 Telegraph (1200m) on January 15 a chance to enter the fan-voted race.
