I saw this race and thought that I'd like to find a horse and train it up to win it."
- Trainer John Sargeant
A Sydneysider on debut has stamped himself as a bargain buy after taking out the $250,000 Magic Millions 2yo Clockwise Classic, 1000m, in Ballarat on Saturday.
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Readily Availabull cost just $25,000 at the Tasmanian Magic Millions yearling sale.
The colt also brought to fruition a plan hatched a few years ago by trainer John Sargeant to win Victoria's only clockwise race.
"I went to the Ballarat Cup meeting a couple of years ago and I saw this race and thought that I'd like to find a horse and train it up to win it," said Sargeant from Sydney.
"This race has good prizemoney and gets him into the Magic Millions (Classic on the Gold Coast in the new year).
"He'll come back now and spend a week in the paddock. I might take him to the Wyong Magic Millions race or head straight to Queensland," he said.
"He's a nice, correct, nippy type. He's done everything we've needed him to do so far."
Ridden by Michael Dee, Ready Availabull ($8) settled well back and charged home from next to last on the turn to get home from Prince Amongst Men ($7.50) by a neck, with Rambeau ($8) a long head away third.
Dee said temperament had been a key to the win.
"He's just a lovely, relaxed colt. That's going to take him a long way.
"He can improve, bearing in mind that it's only his first start," he said.
"He didn't have as much speed as the others so that just shows that in time he could get over slightly further and relax and show a good-turn-of-foot."
Interstate visitors have a strong record in the Magic Millions 2yo Clockwise Classic.
New South Wales trainer Garry Frazer won with Sheer Style in 2013 and fellow NSW mentor Gai Waterhouse with Carriages in 2014, while Lloyd Kennewell saluted with La Pomme De Pin in 2017 while still based in South Australia.
