Oztreos, the star of South Australia’s two-year-old ranks last season, steps out for the first time as a three-year-old and his first appearance in 12 months this Saturday night at Globe Derby Park.
The brilliant son of Astreos dominated his freshman class in 2006, winning nine of his 10 outings and banking in excess of $90,000 for his owner Rocco Scarfo, before fighting for his life later in the year.
Former trainer Jonathon Kingston-Mayne spent many hours nursing the star colt back to health before he was subsequently transferred to the Joe Buttigieg stable in the states South East.
Buttigieg has eased Oztreos back to race fitness over many months and will give him a first test of race pressure at Globe Derby Park on Saturday night in a restricted event before nominating for an Alabar Southern Cross heat the following week.
Oztreos will face the starter in race nine on the 10-race program where he will need to contend with barrier nine. Amazingly, despite having his first start as a three-year-old, his career stakemoney is more than double the rest of the nine-horse field combined.
Stablemate Anvils A Christian will also return to the track for the first time September last year. The Kiwi-bred son of Christian Cullen has won 13 of his 19 starts since landing in Australia early in 2006, including wins in the Country Graduation Final at Globe Derby in March and the Petstock Tontine Final at Ballarat in June.