Clayton Douglas | Clayton Douglas News 57031 Gallant Prince Delivers

Pestering your mate for a ride on a promising horse paid dividends for Beau Mertens today as he steered Gallant Prince to his first victory.

The big Trapeze Artist colt is as impressive in the flesh as he has been in his jumpouts, but a win has eluded the 3 yr old until today at his fifth start.

Jumping from the outside gate, Mertens took the initiative to roll forward and lead. After kicking in the straight Gallant Price proved too hard to run down and went to the line with ears pricked and still star gazing, which wasn’t lost on his jockey.

“The horse has a lot of upside and still mentally not there yet but I think that will give him a lot of confidence” said Beau Mertens.

 Purchased for $135,000 by Clayton from the Widden draft at 2022 Inglis Classic Sale, he’s out of a Zabeel mare, Southern Venture. Gallant Prince became the mares 10^th individual winner.

“He’s a lovely horse this colt. I thought he wouldn’t be a maiden still but he’s run in nice races so good to get the job done today” said a very relieved trainer.

“I think he’ll be a really nice Autumn horse with a bit of cut in the ground. We’ll just see what we do but he’s a big actioned, beautiful type of horse and over time I think he’ll get over ground” said Douglas.

Congratulations to a loyal group of connections who have supported Gallant Prince and the Clayton Douglas team.