A brilliant Randwick victory on Saturday for promising I Am Invincible three year-old Ljungberg will not entice connections to chase the lure of the rich Magic Millions 3YO Guineas despite the withdrawal of the favourite for that race in Native Soldier due to injury.
Prepared by Ron Quinton, Ljungberg broke his maiden last start at Canterbury on December 14 at his first run since being gelded and took another big step forward when bolting clear to win this Benchmark 72 event over 1300 metres by nearly four lengths.
“I didn’t think he would do that today, but he won’t be going (to the Magic Millions). We’ve got a nice horse and we want to look after him,” Quinton said.
“A good mate of mine old Dave Lamond once said you can run out of the horse before you run out of the race.”
A $200,000 Magic Millions purchase from Pedrille Thoroughbreds from the Yarraman Park draft, Ljunberg runs for an ownership group that includes Ray Gall, who also raced his sire I am Invincible. He has won two of five starts earning over $127,000 and looks ready to blossom having been given time to mature.
“He could always gallop but his first couple of times in he just wasn’t quite there,” Quinton said.
“It’s taken a lot of time to teach him to relax because he can jump out and lead if he wants to. He can easily run 33 (seconds) for the first 600m.
“But he’s relaxing beautifully now and is finishing off really strongly as you can see.”
Bred by Yarraman Park in partnership, Ljungberg is the first winner for Group III winning Holy Roman Emperor (IRE) mare Octavia, whose current yearling, a filly by Written Tycoon will be offered by Yarraman at Magic Millions next week as Lot 871.
Octavia produced another colt by I Am invincible last year and was covered by him again.
