Paul Messara will look at taking Outburst to Doomben for The Phoenix 2YO Plate (1600 metres) after his impressive maiden win on his home track on Tuesday as part of a double for the Scone trainer.
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Outburst was a $4.60 favourite for the 1400m maiden handicap at Scone after a second on debut at Muswellbrook on a soft 7.
On a good 4 on Tuesday, Outburst settled midfield before jockey Jeff Penza took the Real Impact gelding around the field and into the lead with 300m to go. He then held off a strong challenge from the Paul Perry-trained Saquon to win by a half-length.
Messara was now eyeing a shot at the listed Phoenix on June 20 and other stakes races in the spring.
"I was really happy with him," Messara said.
"He made good improvement from his first run, he was good on top of the ground and he's going to get better as he gets up over a trip.
"He's going to be a nice horse for the spring. We'll either give him another one or tip him out. He might be a nice horse for a good race over 2000 metres in the spring.
"There a nice race up in Queensland in two weeks, a listed race over a mile, so we'll give that due consideration, if that's possible. Otherwise he might go for a little break if there's no race that suits."
Redoute's Choice four-year-old gelding Melik ($2.15) made it a double for Messara and Arrowfield in the next race, a class 1 handicap over 1100m, with a front-running 1.5-length victory under Mitchell Bell.
"He was good and I'm just going to keep him going through his grades," Messara said. "He'll probably go to a TAB Highway next and we'll see how he goes."
