A hard act to follow – Where’s The Circus show rolls on to $2 million Millennium

Regardless of what happens in the Inglis Millennium on Saturday, Paul Murray’s approach to thoroughbred selection will not change.

Murray trains and part-owns Where’s The Circus, a filly who will be given her chance in the $2 million race at Randwick on Saturday.

It is a nothing-to-lose piece of placement for the Kembla Grange trainer and his partner Michelle Ritchie after Where’s The Circus defied her $1250 Inglis Digital online purchase to claim the $400,000 Inglis Nursery in December.

Where’s The Circus led all the way in the Nursery. Few horses this season are unlikely to come from so far behind on the bloodstock scale of socio-economics and make such an impact.

The Millennium and the $1.155 million that comes with winning the race, restricted to Inglis sale graduates, present another opportunity for Murray to revise yearling budget estimates ahead of the Classic Yearling Sale, which starts in Sydney on Sunday.

But yearling sales have never been about the advantage of having unlimited spending power behind the stable backing for Murray.

He has never been a lavish spender in the auction ring, but if Where’s The Circus keeps an unbeaten record at Randwick, buying her yearling brother on Sunday is certain to become a lot more difficult.

As Lot 190, the Trapeze Artist colt will be offered by Widden Stud and Murray has already made the trip from his NSW south coast stable to Sydney for a midweek inspection.

Murray likes what he sees but probably won’t get caught up in the moment for the sake of it.

“You have to tread lightly and see what the budget’s going to be,” he told The Straight.

“Even with a bit of success, we’re not suddenly looking to spend millions.

“We’ll stay disciplined. If we can find another horse like her, of course we’ll be happy, but we’re not getting carried away.

“It’s hard to say how many we will buy. That interest rate rise the other day didn’t help. That was poor timing for us but hopefully we might be able to buy two or three.” 

Where’s The Circus is out of the Fastnet Rock mare Misplaced, a family Murray was familiar with.

He had trained previous progeny with success but admitted he had little indication of what she might become when she arrived at his stable.

“When we got her home, she was very quiet,” he said. “She’d just walk around the paddock and follow you. 

“She never ran around or carried on.  She was like a labrador, she would follow you everywhere and we didn’t really know what we had until we started to break her in.”

Murray gave her a light early education and a jump-out, cautious not to push her too hard as a two-year-old. 

A barrier trial against mostly older horses changed everything.

“I thought she might struggle, but she jumped and led it comfortably,” Murray said.

“She was very professional … she just did everything right and it was an obvious thing to run her in the Nursery.”

Murray accepts that the Millennium is shaping as a much stronger race than her previous assignment.

Blue Diamond Preview winner Alibaba, Golden Gift placegetter Plagiarism and Jacaranda, a half-sister to the high-class sprinter Artorius, are considered the leading chances.

But Murray is sure Where’s The Circus can revel in her underdog status once more.

“For us, there’s still a bit of the unknown about her. We don’t know how much further or how good she really is, but we’ll probably find out on Saturday.”