Bow Creek Makes Impressive Australian Debut

A stunning Australian debut by the Irish-bred Bow Creek has opened the door to a G1 Spring mission and a possible trip to Hong Kong.

Bow Creek stormed home to finish second in the G2 Crystal Mile at Moonee Valley on Saturday, October 24, with his stablemate Malice in fourth place.

After racing on the pace for most of the race, Bow Creek producing a flying final 100m that left him a half-length behind the winner Turn Me Loose and which would have won him the race in another few strides.

For O'Shea the run enhanced his already good opinion of the five-year-old son of Shamardal who had shown him plenty of ability on the training track.

"He beat Holler in a gallop last week and Holler came out and won today," O'Shea said.

"We knew we had a horse, now we know we've got a very good one."

A well-credentialed miler in Europe, Bow Creek arrived in Australia four weeks ago and then spent two weeks in quarantine.

He joined O'Shea's Melbourne stable and has improved by the day.

"We learned very quickly that he was a very capable horse and today he's shown us he's something special," the trainer said.

"That was an amazing performance."

Bow Creek turned into the short Moonee Valley straight alongside the G1 winner Lucky Hussler and could have been excused for giving ground to that horse.

But when balanced up he found another gear and dropped his well performed rival, beating him home by two-and-half lengths.

Jockey James McDonald was glowing in his praise for Bow Creek.

"He absolutely flew over the last 50 metres. That was the run of a very good horse," McDonald said.

"He can only improve with the run under his belt."

Malice also ran a good race, finishing fourth under James Doyle.

O'Shea will now consider the G1 Emirates Stakes at Flemington on November 7 for Bow Creek and a possible trip to Hong Kong in December where his target would be the G1 Hong Kong Mile.

Bow Creek raced 17 times in Europe where he won five races, two of them at G2 level.