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Mick Price
Since taking out his license in 1991, Mick Price has firmly established himself as one of the leading racehorse trainers in Victoria. Spending 13 years as a stable hand between the ages of 18 and 31, Mick worked learning the craft from some of the best of that era including three of the greatest trainers Bob Hoysted, George Hanlon and John Meagher. From there he took up a position as stable foreman for the fledging private operation of the big spending and flamboyant Floyd Podgornik in lavishly built stables near the Epsom training centre and working along side Richard Freedman set about training the 44 horses entrusted to them of which 37 won in the next 12 months including the 1990 Group 1 Caulfield Guineas with Centro. Mick’s first horse and winner was Arch Turn who he trained for a couple of mates from the local football club which had three duck eggs next to his name but Mick won nine races with him over his career. Mick was then given Uncle Chuck which won first up at Sandown and then bought Toll Belle from Bart Cummings who went on to win the Group 3 Queens Cup at Flemington in 1993.The rest they say is history and Mick is building up an outstanding array of top City and Group performers. Some of the stakes performed horses to be trained by Mick include his GROUP 1 Winners Perfectly Ready (which railed up beautifully to win the Goodwood Hcp in Adelaide), and Red Dazzler( who did likewise to win the Toorak Hcp-both in 2006), Slavonic who stormed home to win the 1999 Group 1 Railway Stakes in Perth by three lengths, Rustic Dream who won the 1999 Futurity Stakes narrowly over Al Mansour,Pompeii Ruler who brilliantly won the Australian Cup in March 07,and Rubiscent which caused an upset in virtually leading all of the way to win the Underwood Stks of 2007.2008 proved to be a defining year for Mick as he captured further GROUP 1 successes via Shinzig who won the C.F.Orr Stakes, Light Fantastic who won the Australian Guineas, Alamosa who captured the Toorak Hcp and Gallica who won the Thousand Guineas.However,if 2008 was big 2009 proved to be even bigger with multiple stakes successes including 4 GROUP 1 winners- 2 on the same day in Adelaide when Gallica and Bel Mer saluted in the Australasian Oaks and Robert Sangster Stakes respectively on the 21st March 2009.Old war horse Pompeii Ruler would go on to win the Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick in April 2009 and Mick would round the year off by winning the Underwood Stakes (as he did in 07) with Heart of Dreams. Other outstanding Stakes performers trained by Mick include,Vocabularly,Kempinsky,French Bid,Halibery,Intelligent Star,Mr Trickster, World Peace,Kylikwong,Tanith,Chattanooga,Amtrak, Pure Harmony, Doubting,Schilling,Gotta Have Heart, Sound Journey,Inkster,Vivacious Spirit,Pre Eminence,Corsaire,Miss Maren and our very own syndications La Bella Dame (who won the Group 2 Angus Armanasco Stakes and Group 3 Tranquil Star Stakes and was GROUP 1 placed in the Thousand Guineas and Damselfly winner of the Group 3 Thoroughbred Club Stakes in 2008)etc. In 2003 Mick trained the trifecta in the Group 3 Blue Diamond Preview with Halibery,Gaelic Princess and Roedean filling all three places while World Peace took out the race for the stable in 2004.Mick kept his fantastic record with two-year-olds in tact by winning both the colts and fillies divisions of the Blue Diamond Prelude’s in 2005 with Perfectly Ready and Doubting. Mick has tasted success in the Futurity Stakes-G1,Railway Stakes-G1,Goodwood Handicap-G1, Toorak Handicap-G1,Australian Cup-G1,Underwood Stakes-G1,C.F.Orr-G1,Australian Guineas-G1,Thousand Guineas-G1,Australasian Oaks-G1,Robert Sangster Stks-G1 and Queen Elizabeth Stks-G1.At Group 2 his successes include the Norman Carlyon Stakes-G2,Angus Armanasco Stakes-G2,AAMI Vase-G2,Swettenham Stud Stakes-G2,Bill Stutt Stakes-G2,Moonee Valley Cup-G2,Woodstock Stakes-G2,Kewney Stakes-G2,Yallambee Stud Stakes-G2,JJ Liston Stakes-G2,Craiglee Stakes-G2,St.George Stakes-G2,Sandown Guineas-G2,Alister Clark Stks-G2,Perri Cutten Cup-G2,Edward Manifold Stks-G2 and Phar Lap Stks-G2 whilst his Group 3 successes are in the Sandown Stakes-G3,Victoria Hcp-G3,Hocking Stuart Stks-G3,Thoroughbred Club Stks-G3,Norman Robinson Stks-G3 and Easter Cup-G3. Mick’s rise over the last few years (as the figures below show) is evidence that he is still climbing the ladder and one feels that his greatest successes are still ahead: 1/8/02-31/7/03-Winners 71-City Winners-32.
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