O’Brien Happy With Prompt Return Ahead Of Magic Millions Clockwise Classic

Prompt Return is currently available at 2014 Magic Millions Clockwise Classic odds of $2 and trainer Danny O’Brien is happy with the condition of the undefeated juvenile heading into the $200,000 race this weekend.

Prompt Return made it two wins from as many race starts with an impressive performance in the Maribyrnong Plate at Flemington on Emirates Stakes Day. Photo by: Sarah Ebbett

Prompt Return made it two wins from as many race starts with an impressive performance in the Maribyrnong Plate at Flemington on Emirates Stakes Day. Photo by: Sarah Ebbett

Prompt Return made his racing debut with a professional victory in the Elmore RC Plate (900m) at Bendigo on October 18 before he stamped himself as a leading contender for the $2 million Magic Millions Clockwise Classic with an impressive win in the Group 3 Maribyrnong Plate (1000m) at Flemington on November 8.

O’Brien told Racing Ahead this morning that Prompt Return had come out of his Maribyrnong Plate in good condition and the leading Melbourne trainer said that the Beneteau colt has continued to do everything right ahead of the 2014 Magic Millions Clockwise Classic this weekend.

“He appears to be really well,” O’Brien said.

“He ran time that day and it was firmish ground, but he certainly took the run very well and we obviously wouldn’t push on to Saturday unless we thought that.

“He is a two-year-old that has done everything right each time that he has stepped up; he had his first trial and he ran second and looked ok, then he went to Bendigo and had a tradesman like win there and he improved again when he went to Flemington.

“He has done a bit, he is coping and he seems to have learnt a bit more each time.”

Prompt Return is set to contest the 2015 Magic Millions Classic at the Gold Coast on January 10 if he is successful in the Magic Millions Clockwise Classic at Ballarat this weekend, but O’Brien revealed that he does not plan to send the two-year-old to Queensland early for a traditional lead-up race like the Group 3 BJ McLachlan Plate (1200m) at the Gold Coast on December 27 and instead plans to run the juvenile at Moonee Valley in the lead-up to the $2 million event.

“If he comes through it and we are heading up to the Coast then we are probably going to stay back here and we don’t need to go up there and give him another practice in the right-handed direction seeing that he has had a trial and a race,” O’Brien said.

“If we do decide that we are going up to the Gold Coast then we will probably leave him here at Flemington and run him in Melbourne two weeks before the Gold Coast race at Moonee Valley and then we probably fly him up there on the week of the race.”

Prompt Return is available at Magic Millions Clockwise Classic odds of $2 and is a clear favourite from Old Trieste ($6), Carriages ($6.50), Moral Outrage ($8.50) and Atalanta Miss ($9).

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Thomas Hackett

Thomas is a passionate and opinionated racing journalist and punter who has been obsessed with horse racing since he backed Saintly to win the 1996 Melbourne Cup. An international racing enthusiast, he has his finger on the pulse of racing news not just from Australia but all around the world.