Mick Price confident Globe will be right for first test at 2000m in Bendigo Cup

Trainer Mick Price has a “minor reservation” when Cranbourne Cup winner Globe steps up in distance in the Ballarat Cup on Saturday.

Cranbourne Cup winner Globe will step up to the 2000m for the first time in the Ballarat Cup on Saturday. Picture: Scott Barbour/Racing Photos via Getty Images

Trainer Mick Price is confident Globe can pass a 2000m test on Saturday in the Listed Ballarat Cup.

The lightly-raced six-year-old Globe, who has won five of nine starts, bounced out of Listed Cranbourne Cup (1600m) last start.

The only minor reservation for Price on Saturday is whether a fortnight is enough time for the 1600m to 2000m progression.

“I’d be really confident he’ll get 2000m,” Price said.

“If he was really conditioned up for it, I’d have no drama, if he gets pinched in the race well so be it.”

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Globe won twice at 1800m last year, by four lengths each time remarkably in respective Benchmark 64 and 100 races.

A heart issue aborted the a subsequent spring campaign. Globe resumed last April and finished fourth in the Group 3 Victoria Handicap (1400m) but a shoulder setback prematurely ended a second consecutive preparation.

The Charm Spirit gelding placed fourth and second in the Moonga and Chester Manifold stakes this time in before a deserved victory at Cranbourne.

“I took a punt on the race (Cranbourne Cup) because the mile was right and prizemoney was good and I thought one part of the race he will get right is right down the back,” Price said.

“It’s a nice long run and they’ll leave him alone, all he had to do was get around the corner and the last furlong, and he got the job done with no margin but he got the job done.

“I think 2000m (Ballarat Cup on Saturday) should be good for him, I hope it comes at the right time, it’s only two weeks (since Cranbourne) but should be OK.”

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Globe is likely to be spelled after Saturday with Price and co-trainer Michael Kent Jr to draw up an autumn campaign for the progressive galloper.

“I don’t want to be banging him around in summer I don’t think and it’s an opportune time to give him a breather,” Price said.

“He’s done a good job and then reset him for the autumn, whether that’s Melbourne and or Sydney there should be some nice races for him.

“He’s a big strong horse, you’d think 2000m would be no drama.”

Price has sights on the “right races” for Globe next campaign.

“I’m finding the balance between running him in the right rating races for the right prizemoney,” Price said.

“I’m not in a big hurry to bowl him into a Group 1.

“He will basically run in black-type races from here on in, if he’s right time, right place over 2000m, definitely he could front up in the right Group 1 but he just has to prove it.”

Price has booked jockey Jye McNeil to ride Globe on Saturday with Ethan Brown committed in Perth.

McNeil will gallop Globe on Tuesday at Cranbourne.

Originally published as Mick Price confident Globe will be right for first test at 2000m in Bendigo Cup