Warwick Farm preview: There’s no place like home for top trainer Grahame Begg

Begg saddles up Ebony King at Warwick Farm while at Randwick on Saturday, he is represented by Passive Aggressive and C’est Magique.

Ebony King ran a cheeky race when runner-up behind Hanau at Canterbury nearly three weeks ago and is one of the leading contenders in the Exceedance’s First Yearlings Handicap (1200m).

“He ran well. He covered plenty of ground in the early stages and it was sort of on the borderline of what he likes as far as the track condition goes,” said Begg.

“There was a bit of rain during the afternoon and the track was a bit soft for him. He is alright on a (soft) 5 or borderline 6 but we thought it was a bit worse than that on the night.”

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Jockey Nash Rawiller made the bold decision to keep the gelding wide at the start before crossing down to the rails.

He almost pinched it when Ebony King kicked back after being headed in the straight before Hanau came from last with a rails run to beat him.

“Nash thought the ground was better out there because that’s where the tractor drives on the track,” Begg said.

“Probably his greenness brought him undone a bit.

“The winner might be a promising horse too. Ebony King was giving away four kilos to him.

“He will be very well suited on a Good track this week and he has drawn well. He gets a very good chance.”

At Randwick, Begg has Passive Aggressive returning to defend her title in the Group 2 Challenge Stakes (1000m) and C’est Magique chasing her first black-type win in the Group 3 Wenona Girl (1200m)

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“Passive Aggressive is first-up after not running for a long time. She went to stud but didn’t get in foal so she has been back in work since early December,” Begg said.

“She has prepped up very well. She trialled beautifully at Cranbourne and had a jumpout there last Monday week then she went to Sydney last Friday.

“Nothing is really different to when she went up last year.

“C’est Magique ran very well first-up in the Triscay. She just blew out the last 100m of the race.

“To our eye, she has made the necessary improvement so we are expecting her to run very well.”

Originally published as Warwick Farm preview: There’s no place like home for top trainer Grahame Begg