Unbeaten 2YO McGaw to tackle $1m VOBIS Platinum Showdown at Caulfield

Bypassing the Blue Diamond series could lead to a rich payday for impressive Pakenham debut winner McGaw in Saturday’s $1m VOBIS Platinum Showdown at Caulfield.

McGaw will attempt to stay unbeaten in the $1m VOBIS Platinum Showdown at Caulfield. Picture: Racing Photos via Getty Images

McGaw is raw but on track to remain unbeaten in Saturday’s $1m VOBIS Platinum Showdown at Caulfield (1200m).

The Showdown is restricted to horses paid up for the VOBIS Gold or Silver breeders’ incentive scheme that are sired by an eligible Victoria-based stallion, earning an upgrade to VOBIS Platinum status.

• PUNT LIKE A PRO: Become a Racenet iQ member and get expert tips – with fully transparent return on investment statistics – from Racenet’s team of professional punters at our Pro Tips section. SUBSCRIBE NOW!

McGaw is a son of former boom two-year-old I Am Immortal, who stands at Swettenham Stud at Nagambie that easily won on debut at Pakenham in January.

Trainers David and Emma-Lee Browne considered running the gelding in the Blue Diamond series but decided to give McGaw a short break before setting him for The Showdown.

“Being one of the VOBIS Platinum horses, it seemed a logical step for him,” Emma-Lee Browne said.

“We nominated him for the Blue Diamond because he’d had a few trials and done them nicely but we weren’t sure how hard to push him as a two-year-old, so we left that.

“He won pretty well at Pakenham and this race probably suits him better and it’s quite handy having that big prizemoney.

“It’s definitely not going to be easy because there’s still some very, very nice horses in there but it is a restricted race, which will help.”

The Pakenham trainers decided to give McGaw multiple chances to familiarise himself with the Caulfield circuit ahead of The Showdown.

Impressive debut winner McGaw will race for $1m in Saturday's VOBIS Platinum Showdown at Caulfield. Picture: Racing Photos via Getty Images

McGaw won a jumpout on the Caulfield Heath track on March 5 before pleasing his trainers with a gallop alongside his unraced stablemate Himalayan on Tuesday morning.

“We’re very happy with him,” Browne said.

“I think he wanted to go a little bit quicker but we’re very happy with how he went.

“He does like to get on with the job a little bit and that’s why we took him to Caulfield to jump out and have a gallop to try to make sure we had him as forward as we could with enough exposure.”

• Knight’s Choice heading home after autumn plans derailed

McGaw is the $2.80 favourite in early betting on the rich feature ahead of the Lindsay Park-trained filly Killiana, who was also a debut winner, at $3.50.

Himalayan is an $18 chance.

Browne said connections were unsure whether Himalayan would sneak into The Showdown field on debut, but the stable would assess her recovery from Tuesday’s trackwork before deciding whether to accept.

“I thought her gallop was really, really good,” Browne said.

“She doesn’t have the race day experience, but she galloped with McGaw and went well.

“Because it’s restricted, we thought we’d put a nom(ination) in, but we were waiting to see how she went at Caulfield.”

Originally published as Unbeaten 2YO McGaw to tackle $1m VOBIS Platinum Showdown at Caulfield