The burgeoning rivalry between Sacred Satono and Babylon Berlin will kick up a gear when the pair meet at Pukekohe on New Year’s Day.
Sacred Satono got the better of his older rival at the South Auckland venue in the Listed Counties Bowl (1100m) in November and trainers Grant Cooksley and Bruce Wallace are hoping for a repeat performance in the Gr.1 Sistema Railway (1200m) on Monday.
Cooksley and Wallace liked him the moment they saw him at Karaka as a yearling and they are pleased the $34,000 purchase out of Rich Hill Stud’s 2021 New Zealand Bloodstock Book 2 draft is fulfilling his promise.
“I trained his half-sister and she went alright,” Cooksley told TAB NZ. “I went and had a look at him at the sales and liked what I had seen. His first couple of gallops we knew we had something then.
“You wouldn’t get a better horse to do anything with. He is just so relaxed and nothing seems to worry him. He just does his work and walks off the track like a pony, but when he switches on he is a different horse.
“The older he has got, the better he has got. He relaxes in his races and when you ask him to do something he can sprint well.”
Sacred Satono will once again be piloted by Michael McNab and the leading hoop believes his charge is a massive chance of snaring Group One success.
“He beat her (Babylon Berlin) really comfortably. Obviously the big swing in the weights is the big talking point, and she is a proven Group One horse, but I think he is the better ride,” McNab said.
“He is a big, strong horse so I don’t think carrying extra weight, I think he has got to carry another three kilos, is going to be an issue. If he gets to the level he promises he could, I don’t think it is going to matter.”
Cooksley is hoping McNab is right, as the former jockey, who recorded 66 Group One wins in the saddle, would dearly love to tick another one up as a trainer.
“Everyone wants to win a Group One, so it will be great if I could,” he said.
