Two-year-old blue bloods to clash on debut at Sandown on Wednesday

A half-brother to former sprinting star Imperatriz and the daughter of two Oakleigh Plate winners will clash in an intriguing two-year-old contest at Sandown on Wednesday.

Wednesday’s Thoroughbred Club of Australia Handicap at Sandown could be a showdown between a pair of blue blood two-year-olds.

I’mateez, a half-brother to the former superstar sprinter Imperatriz will be up against Samudra, a daughter of Oakleigh Plate winners Snitzel and Pippie.

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Bookmakers have the Mark Walker-trained Samudra as an odds-on favourite after three jumpout wins while I’mateez is a $17 chance after improving to win his latest jumpout at Cranbourne on May 12.

Walker’s Melbourne representative Ben Gleeson said the stable had been careful with Samudra, who was a $775,000 yearling purchase.

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“She’s not an out-and-out two-year-old by any means,” Gleeson said.

“When people see her in the parade ring, they’ll see she’s a big, strong, scopey type of filly that is certainly going to grow.

“She’s taken time to mature body-wise and every time she’s had a jumpout, we’ve just given her that bit of extra time.

“We haven’t wanted to push her until she showed us she’s ready. But we’ve been really pleased with her jumpouts.”

A daughter of Oakleigh Plate winners Snitzel and Pippie (pictured) will debut at Wednesday’s Sandown meeting. Picture: Getty Images

I’mateez, a son of Golden Slipper winner Capitalist, cost $200,000 as a yearling on the Gold Coast last year.

The colt’s trainer Alex Rae said the youngster had plenty of speed but needed to answer questions in the last 100m of the $50,000 contest.

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“He certainly heads to the races with a good understanding of what his job is, but what happens when the real pressure goes on late in the race, I’m not sure how he’s going to respond,” Rae said.

“He’ll jump, he’ll run and he’s pretty one-dimensional so we’re not going to do anything out of the ordinary with him.

“He’ll probably lead them up and hopefully he’ll be strong late, that’s the big question.

“It’s going to be a tricky race but I suppose, when you’ve got a horse with the pedigree that he has, I suppose there’s some lofty ambitions internally.”

Ben Melham will ride Samudra while Melbourne Cup-winning jockey Jye McNeil will be aboard I’mateez.

Originally published as Two-year-old blue bloods to clash on debut at Sandown on Wednesday