Sandbar’s first season flagbearer Shaggy will make a late-season reappearance with a view to attacking three-year-old stakes races fit and firing next month.
Wyong trainer Allan Kehoe unveiled the plan for Shaggy who is set to resume in Saturday’s Keeneland September Yearling Sale Handicap (1100m) at Randwick.
The winner of his first three starts before finishing a close-up fifth in the Group 2 Skyline in March, Shaggy was set to run in Queensland in mid-June but he was scratched after drawing a wide barrier and given another short break.
“I think he’s up to them. I thought this race would be a good lead up for the Rosebud,’’ Kehoe told Racing NSW of Shaggy's comeback.
“He was going to go straight into the Rosebud but when Aaron (Bullock) hopped off him after the trial he said he’s ready to rock and roll.
“He held a lot of fitness from the prep where he was going to go to Brisbane. He’s bigger, he didn’t grow much taller but he’s around 25kg heavier now.
“He’s really beefed up, he looks like he’s going to be one of those gross-looking animals but not quite so tall.”
Shaggy is raced by the Lamont family’s Kooringal Stud, which stands his sire Sandbar, the Snitzel three-quarter brother to Kia Ora Stud’s Golden Slipper-winning stallion Farnan.
As a result of Shaggy and debut winner Dusty Bay’s emergence from a first crop of just 40 foals, Sandbar’s service fee for 2025 has increased to $13,200 (inc GST), up from $8,800.
