PEAKY BLINDER TESTS KL WATERS

Ipoh trainer Coetzee says smart 3Y0 has to travel in order to step up to another level

- Michael Lee

Promising three-year-old Peaky Blinder's first run in Kuala Lumpur on Nov 24 may come in a modest RM40,000 (S$12,000) Class 3 event, but to his trainer Kevin Coetzee, it may well be the first stepping stone to a potentially brilliant career.

Looking at the South African's bursting trophy cabinet, he would know a fast horse from a not-sofast horse.

From the day Peaky Blinder landed in his Ipoh yard, he sniffed up ability, even if he is not the most docile customer around.

Whether he would reach the heights of his Selangor Gold Cup winners Good Nature and Good Baby or two-time Coronation Cup winner Speed Baby is another story altogether.

But one rite of passage the three-year-old has to go through to meet any higher ambitions one day is travelling.

On the Malaysian circuit, that would mean a road trip by float, and in Peaky Blinder's case this weekend, 200km between his Ipoh stables and Sungai Besi.

Some may take those transfers for granted, but to Coetzee, a first test around a new course against tougher cattle was a simpler box to tick.