Breeding & Racing Magazine

Sikanderabad Joins the Prodigal Son

Young trainer Sam Kavanagh has been quietely rebuilding his career and stable after being granted a second chance by Victorian authorities late last year. Considered a shining young light until falling foul of stewards with cobalt and caffeine charges, Kavanagh was hit with a 9-year ban that would have seen most find another career. According to racing.com, with the sentence ultimately commuted to just under four-and-a-half years following many appeals, the trainer is looking forward in every way as he makes his second coming count. In what is seen as an important step to getting the fledgling stable back into Saturday racing, Kavanagh purchased Gr1-performed Sikanderabad (trained by Lindsay Park) for $100,000 from the draft of Yulong at the 2020 Inglis May Online Sale despite the import being winless from his past 13 runs. "Lindsay Park have an amazing record for having sound, older horses," revealed Kavanagh. "We had him checked out and vetted and he's a sound, nice older horse that we can run pretty much straight away." Plenty of interest has been expressed by enthusiastic owners in Sikanderabad since the purchase, with Kavanagh saying, "He's the sort of horse that can give us the opportunity to run in nice races on the big days and it's very hard to get that opportunity at that cost."