Essoess to answer the call for Minervini at Scone on Monday

Former Morphettville trainer Mark Minervini has grey coloured Choisir son Essoess primed to deliver the stable their first win at Scone

Trainer & part owner Paul Perry with Choisir at Royal Ascot. Picture: Turf

Son of Choisir Essoess is ready and able to deliver former Morphettville trainer Mark Minervini his first winner in Australia’s designated thoroughbred capital in a targeted return to racing on Monday.

Minervini, who is now well and truly established at Newcastle, has picked up five minor medals at Scone when making the occasional visit, one of them came via Essoess in mid-June when he finished a neck off the winner.

Minervini is quietly confident that the Coolmore-foaled gelding will go one better when he resumes in the Stablewizard Handicap (1300m).

‘’This has been a target race for him for the whole prep,’’ Minervini revealed.

‘’We have given him the two trials and just looked after him. His form at Scone is pretty good, he’s only had a couple of runs there, and I thought he ran well both times.

‘’The long home straight seems to suit him because he can sprint home good. The wide barrier on Monday doesn’t concern me because he will probably go back and come round them anyway.

‘’I think if he puts his best foot forward, he can be right in the finish of that race for sure.

‘’He is a fully mature horse now and I am hoping we can see the best of him this prep,’’ Minervini says.

Essoess is a rare grey son of his chestnut sire, the Hall Of Famer – Choisir.

His dam, Splash Of Moet was herself a grey, the same as her father, Dash For Cash.

Splash of Moet was trained for most of her career by Minervini and won her first two starts at Morphettville as a two-year-old by a combined margin of nine-lengths.

‘’She’s left a good horse in Melbourne that won at Moonee Valley the other day, a horse called Mynumerouno. The same guys who own Essoess own it and I think they’ve got a huge opinion of him,’’ Minervini said.

Today’s Scone meeting marks the debut of Minervini’s three-year-old filly Miss Violet which is only fitting given where she was sold.

Miss Violet was raised at Young at John North’s Bowness Stud, the home to stallions Bon Hoffa and D’Argento.

North offered Miss Violet at the 2020 Scone Yearling Sale where she was snapped up by Minervini for just $11,000.

‘’The sale was right in the middle of Covid and it was only a virtual sale, we bought her online, but we had a couple of judges that had already seen her and said she was quite a nice filly,’’ the trainer said.

‘’I’ve got a bit of time for her and I’ve been really pleased with her – she goes good.

‘’She’ll be up on the speed and if she has a good run, she will be really competitive there and maybe even win for us which would be good.’’

Miss Violet showed an abundance of pace in her only trial appearance, finishing a nose second in the 800m at Beaumont on October 27.

The stable’s first of three runners at Scone today is the relatively recent recruit, Loch Gorman, who will appreciate, nay require, an improving track surface given his poor soft/heavy form.