INVINCIBLE MISSILE & CONTE

19th December 2018

A Sha Tin double for Price Bloodstock on Sunday as Chris So continued his great record with debutants and John Size-trained Conte laid down a platform to start looking at the higher grade races in the New Year.

Invincible Missile had been impressing in his early trials for So before his latest on the dirt threw a spanner in the works but So said it was a standard problem.

“Sometimes when the young ones trial on the dirt, they get some kickback and don’t like it and then they won’t go,” he said. “His trials on the turf had been good. Like all the Price Bloodstock horses, he does everything right and is easy to train.”

With the benefit of gate 1, Invincible Missile got a few breaks in running but was good enough to take advantage of them and drew off to win by a big margin for Douglas Whyte, who has been doing all the work on the son of Smart Missile.

“I don’t know how much they’ll put him up for that and the handicapper can stop the horse if he punishes him too much, too early but hopefully he will not give him too much. The horse still has a lot to learn,” said So, who has made a nice habit of winning first-up with many of the Price Bloodstock horses he has trained over the years. “It’s always good to get the result first time for the owner. I told the owner, David Price will find you a good one.”

Conte has long left behind the early butterflies of a young horse of promise, rising through the ranks and now staring at the prospect of Group races after he ran away with the Class 2 feature on Sunday to take his record to 6 wins from 8 starts.

The win will take his rating into triple figures now after Joao Moreira gave him a great ride and let the horse’s talent do the rest, and trainer John Size plans to do the same.

“I had to show a little bit of patience to make sure he was up to it when he got to this class,” said Size. “If I’d started a little bit earlier in the season, he might not have been up to it because when they go up the grades too fast it can work against them. I’m not particularly concerned about how high he can go, I’ll take it as it comes. The horses that keep on winning, you can’t actually hold them back and put a limit on them.“