By Adam Pengilly
Pinhooking - rather than party pooping - was scribbled in Marc Quinn's calendar for the coming week.
His original intention was for Cogliere, a $22,000 Inglis Classic buy, to go helter skelter in a looming breeze-up sale rather than race his way into Golden Slipper contention in the opening race of the two-year-old season in Sydney, the Breeders' Plate at Randwick on Saturday.
Stepping up: Zac Purton will ride Cogliere at Randwick.Credit: Getty Images
"When I got him home a few of [my owners] said, 'I see you bought a horse, I'll take a share, I'll take a share'," Quinn said. "Seventy-five per cent of him was sold in two days. I rang Inglis and told them I had changed my mind and I was going to keep him."
It might not be a bad idea. Cogliere will be the first two-year-old from Vinery's first season sire Pluck to hit the racetrack and his name was inspired by the Italian derivative of his father's moniker.
Bookmakers have made Cogliere the $51 outsider in the Breeders' Plate, but it hasn't bothered his Port Macquarie trainer who has booked Hong Kong-based Zac Purton, who rode a winner for Quinn as a three-kilogram claimer at Wyong before reaching superstar status.
"I think he's a definite top five player," Quinn said of Cogliere. "He looks like a horse that shouldn't be racing for another six months, but I remember when I was at Crown Lodge there was this big gangly hose called Clang.
"I remember asking Peter Snowden, 'why is this horse still in the stable?' And he said, 'every time he gallops against a horse John [Hawkes] puts him up against he beats them'.
"I've kept that in my mind and he's going OK, eating OK so we'll just keep punching along with him."
Cogliere finished a close-up fourth behind The Reverend Demon in a Randwick trial, but is a long way from the Snowdens' Capitalist ($1.75) which heads Breeders' Plate betting.
Snowden has sent the most impressive trial winner at Randwick, Defcon, for a short break before aiming at the end of the Melbourne spring carnival, but still holds all the aces on Saturday.
Aside from the favourite, he has third pick Detective ($8.50), which is also raced by a new syndicate headed up by bloodstock agent James Harron.
"They've both trialled nice," Snowden said. "There was a lot of merit in Capitalist's win and he's a ready made professional. Detective is a nice horse going forward, but from his work and the way he trialled he should be competitive."