Articley by Carl Di lorio at Racing.com
Berkeley Square raced into contention for this year’s Caulfield Guineas and Victoria Derby at Flemington on Saturday with his ownership group set to be inundated with further offers to sell.
Trained by Dan O’Sullivan at Ballarat, Berkeley Square won Melbourne’s first three-year-old race for the new season, the $150,000 VRC Member Damian Cubela Handicap (1400m) held under benchmark 70 conditions, by 1.75 lengths.
Berkeley Square is owned by a syndicate led by breeder David Peacock, carrying his easily identifiable florescent lime green silks, and few missed the 1347-metre Geelong juvenile debut winner finish an unlucky second to Boogie Dancer over 1400 metres at Caulfield a fortnight ago.
“David (Peacock) has had big offers, a lot of offers to sell him to Hong Kong but David keeps knocking them back,” O’Sullivan said.
Berkeley Square ($1.90 favourite) had settled rearward at his first two starts under apprentice Alana Kelly but nine-time Melbourne premiership winning rider Craig Williams positioned Berkeley Square outside the lead in a slowly run race at Flemington from barrier three.
“He did things more professionally at his third start but he still didn’t know what to do at the business end. He’s a great competitor to be aboard,” Williams said.
“He’s still relatively raw, he’s got a great attitude, he’s easy to do anything with, but he’s got so much scope. Dan O’Sullivan has done a great job in managing him.”