Lightly-tried three-year-old Ad Vitam broke maiden ranks in impressive fashion at Sandown on Wednesday when swooping under Blake Shinn to score over 1400m.
The son of Proisir finished runner-up on debut for Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young and took good improvement and shapes as a horse with a bright future for prominent owners Kevin and Vikki Payne.
“He has benefited from that first start at Sale, with that added experience,” Shinn said.
“He was good in the gates, and that gave me a good indication he would jump better. He hasn’t shown any tactical speed in his jumpouts, so I expected him to be back. We got in a nice position, blended into the dip well, and quickened like a decent horse.
“I love the way he rounded that race off. He is mentally still six months away, but he has a good engine. It’s just great to ride another win for Kevin Payne in these colours, he has been a big supporter of mine.
“The more I asked him to lengthen, the more he wanted to attack the line, I like that in a horse.
“When he gets a grasp of racing, he is going to keep developing, and he will get at least a mile, maybe 2000m. He’s got a bright future.”
Bred by Gary and Jenny Hennessy under their Weowna Park banner in conjunction with Andrew Wong and Stephen Yan, the chestnut son of Proisir is out of the O’Reilly mare Mariota and stems from the family of Samantha Miss, Cronus and Pravda.
Ad Vitam was presented for sale in the Book 2 session of the 2023 Karaka Yearling Sale but failed to meet his $120,000 reserve.
Owner Kevin Payne later purchased the now gelding privately from Hennessy after he was broken in.
Busutiin and Young’s racing manager Sam Griggs was impressed with the performance.
“He took a while to get to the leader, but once he did, he put them away well,” Griggs said.
“That’s probably as good as he has ever jumped. He is usually very slow away. It was on terms for him, and the rest was up to Blake, but once he went for him and he quickened up, it was painless.
“I thought he only had to hold what he did on his debut to win this race today. It’s nice to vindicate it and come out and win it. It is a nice one going forward for Kevin and Vicki Payne.
“Certainly, he has a good eye, ‘KP,’ and he’s provided us another nice one here.” The Hennessy’s have retained an Ocean Park two-year-old half-sister to Ad Vitam.