So Si Bon Ready to Fire at Sandown

Robbie Laing is confident that So Si Bon will run out of his skin at Sandown on Saturday, regardless of which race the Pearcedale trainer elects to contest.

So Si Bon has displayed similar ability to the Robbie Laing-trained 2013 Victoria Derby winner Polanski (pictured). Photo: Race Horse Photos Australia

Laing initially underlined the featured Group 2 Zipping Classic (2400m) as an ideal option for the three-year-old after his strong run for fourth in the Group 1 Victoria Derby (2500m) on October 29^th, but an apparent lack of depth in Group 2 Sandown Guineas (1600m) contention led the trainer to also include So Si Bon in nominations for that race.

Having drawn influence from the previous success of three-year-olds in the Zipping Classic, Laing told Racing Ahead that the So You Think colt has thrived since his run in the Victoria Derby and he is confident he will perform to a typically-high standard on Saturday.

“I just noticed Stevie Theodore‘s horse a few years ago Count Ricardo – ran third in the Derby, and won the Classic with the pull in the weights, won pretty easily. He beat the imported gallopers,” Laing said.

“That’s the way I was thinking originally.

“Then, when there was only 12 in the Guineas, I threw in an entry. It doesn’t look like a great year.

“We’re just keeping our options open for another 24 hours.

“I was going to turn him out, but the weather’s been so bad with the wind and that, I didn’t want to tip him out and have him run through a fence. So I kept taking him to the track and working him.

“The track riders, after about day three (following the Derby), said he’s very full of himself.

“So I started to work him a bit harder, and I think my track work riders could see what was going to happen. I threw in an entry.

“He worked strong on Saturday morning, worked brilliantly this morning, he’s a very good racehorse, and whatever he runs in, he’ll be hard to beat.”

So Si Bon has been a strong and consistent performer since debuting in a Flemington minor over 1100m on June 11^th, and made a successful transition to black type racing when sixth in the Group 3 Caulfield Guineas Prelude (1400m) on September 24^th.

Progressing to a credible fifth in the Group 1 Caulfield Guineas (1600m), So Si Bon ran third in the Group 2 Moonee Valley Vase (2040m), in what was his only other start prior to the Victoria Derby.

Fields for both the Zipping Classic and Sandown Guineas are due to be completed and released by midday, Wednesday.

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