When Grunt three year-old Mr Blunt won on debut at Ballarat on the synthetic track by nine lengths earlier this month he was an easy choice as a One to Watch and on Tuesday he repeated the performance to go two for two.
Trained by Tony and Calvin McEvoy and ridden by John Allen, Mr Blunt was a hot favourite for the Benchmark 64 event over the same course and this time scored by four lengths in driving rain and treacherous conditions
Calvin McEvoy braved the conditions and was at the track to greet Mr Blunt as he returned to scale.
“It was workmanlike today in the conditions and he didn't show as much speed, obviously up in class too,” said Calvin McEvoy.
“Johnny (Allen) took his time. We just had a plan to not complicate it really. He rolled forward and when he was there to find, he did find for him.
“He's a horse that's still working it out. He's very hard to get a guide on at home because he's such a big baby, so we don't know where the ceiling is, but he’s obviously got decent ability.
“Congratulations to his Paul Schauble, he's here today and he bred the horse and he's been very patient. Hopefully, we can get him up to town now.”
Retained to race by his breeder Paul Schauble, Mr Blunt is a horse a lot of people will look forward to seeing again on the grass although the expectation is he will be better with a spell and further maturity.
Mr Blunt is the fourth winner from six to race from Pitch Black, an unraced half-sister by Kheleyf (GB) to Group I Winning HK Horse of the Year Desert Eagle (Grand Delight) from stakes-winner Egyptian Ibis.
He is one of 64 winners this season for Grunt, who stands at Yulong at a fee of $19,800.
A Group I winner by O’Reilly, Grunt had a sharp reduction in the number of mares covered last year dropping from 164 in 2023 to just 81 last year.
