Unencumbered bound for Millions after win

Saturday 7 December 2013, 2:24pm

A tilt at Australia's richest summer race with Unencumbered is now more than a pipedream for trainer Bjorn Baker after the colt ended a run of Darley two-year-old winners in Sydney.

Peter Snowden had trained the past four Saturday juvenile winners and Occitan started the $2.60 favourite at Randwick to continue the sequence in the Ascend Sale Trophies Plate (1000m).

But she got caught up in traffic and while Kerrin McEvoy was looking for a run, Nathan Berry brought Unencumbered ($5.50) from the back half of the field to score a decisive 1-1/4 length win over Delectation.

A $70,000 Magic Millions yearling, Unencumbered will now be set on a path to next month's $2 million Magic Millions Classic (1200m) at the Gold Coast.

"It is a great result. Nathan has figured him out and has a lot of belief in the horse," Baker said.

"I've had some good two-year-olds and he is right up there with the best of them.

"We'll obviously see how he pulls up but the plan would be to go to the Wyong Magic Millions race in 12 days and then on to the Gold Coast."

Berry said he was excited to be associated with the Testa Rossa colt and would like to emulate his twin brother Tommy who rose to prominence with his 2010 Magic Millions win on Karuta Queen followed two years later by a second success on Driefontein.

"I've never ridden in the Magic Millions and it would be great to go up there especially with a horse which would be a genuine contender," Berry said.

"Tommy has had such success it would be good to do the same.

"This colt did what you want to see from a horse going forward.

"I think he still would have won today if I had pulled him back to last."

– AAP

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