Pride set to go for gold with Columbia Blue at Wyong

A well-bred four-year-old is set to continue an outstanding spring return for one of NSW’s leading stables when he resumes at Wednesday’s Wyong meeting.

Columbia Blue, a smart and emerging son of 2019 The Everest winner Yes Yes Yes in the Joe Pride stable at Warwick Farm, hasn’t started since missing narrowly in a benchmark 64 on the Kensington track in early June.

Warwick Farm trainer Joe Pride will saddle up Columbia Blue at Wyong on Wednesday.Credit: Getty Images

That was only his third – and final – start of an initial campaign that saw him bolt in the maiden at Hawkesbury in heavy ground, while beating all but the winner in two other runs either side of that.

Columbia Blue has been fitted with two home trials, and the trainer believes he’s ready to pick up where he left off first-up in a class 1 heat of the Rising Star series over 1100m.

And Columbia Blue may be even better suited by the time they jump, with intermittent rain forecast in the lead-up and expected to push the track from an early Good 4 rating back into soft range.

Either way, the momentum is unlikely to stop for the Pride camp.

Among 10 individual winners from 31 runners over the past four weeks, a group 1 at Flemington over the carnival, and the quinella in the Hunter at Newcastle have led the charge.

Meanwhile, breeding buffs won’t have to look any further than the opening race, with a sparingly raced five-year-old who is primed to land a breakthrough win.

Bank Heist is a son of multiple group 1-winning champion Cracksman, considered one of the finest staying performers of his generation.

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Himself a son of unbeaten UK superstar Frankel, Cracksman was a triple group 1 winner across Europe and the UK, as well as a dual group 2 winner, despite having only nine starts.

In fact, his two group 1 wins at Ascot in 2017-18 as a hot favourite are still considered among the most dominant in the carnival’s history.

That’s a long way from a Wednesday at Wyong, but Bank Heist looks well-placed in his third outing from the Newcastle base of Ciaron Maher after switching from the Michael Freedman stable in winter.

He tackles a maiden plate for the older gallopers over a mile, 15 days after disappointing in a similar race at Gosford – although the stable has an unlikely fallback, also nominating the gelding for a maiden handicap (1750m) at Muswellbrook this Friday.

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