Alligator bays for Blood by downing Cox Plate hopefuls in Underwood
Rivals lick their wounds after Waterhouse and Bott’s gelding claims third Group 1
Adrian Bott didn’t lose faith in Alligator Blood’s middle–distance abilities, despite being run down in the Makybe Diva Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) and the co-trainer’s belief in the gelding was vindicated when the son of All Too Hard (Casino Prince) won the Underwood Stakes (Gr 1, 1800m) yesterday.
In delivering his third Group 1 win on his 23rd career start, and at his first run beyond 1600 metres, Alligator Blood also dented the Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m) credentials of his more fancied rivals on the Sandown Hillside track, prompting Bott and his co-trainer Gai Waterhouse to firmly set their sights on Moonee Valley’s signature race in four weeks’ time.
“I know he was grabbed there late in the race [at Flemington in the Makybe Diva], but very early in his preparation with a nice tough run mile, and he’s had a bit of a chequered run to get there, I guess,” Bott said after Alligator Blood’s Underwood Stakes performance.
“There was good improvement – we saw that during the week – and over that extra trip he was able to find that nice rhythm and he was able to maintain those sectionals at a good, high cruising speed and he was able to find under pressure.
“It was a testing track here today and I expect him to keep finding under pressure over a bit further as well.”
Alligator Blood had three–quarters of a length to spare over a rallying Mo’unga (Savabeel) while Zaaki (Leroidesanimaux) was a head away in third place.
Tim Clark, who has ridden Alligator Blood in four of his five starts since the horse joined the Waterhouse-Bott stable earlier this year including the mount in his Stradbroke Handicap (Gr 1, 1400m) win at Eagle Farm in June, was able to dictate in front on the gelding.
“He got away well and as planned we wanted to show our intent early then try and get him into a nice rhythm from 1400 metres, 1200 metres onward,” Clark said.
“I thought he travelled really comfortably and he seemed to be doing it well within himself. Zaaki did come and put the pressure on him and eyeball him (but I) just felt that my horse had a bit to offer, my bloke, when we got down to the bottom of the dip.
“I thought he responded courageously and probably just being that extra run into his prep, I felt that Zaaki might have been a bit vulnerable late going to the 1800 second-up. I was always confident my bloke was going to fight hard.”
Clark shares Bott’s confidence in Alligator Blood being able to extend himself to the Cox Plate distance.
“As I said earlier in the week, this race, apart from Anamoe, all the big guns were there. He’s proven himself over 1800 (metres) on a big roomy track like this so 2040 around The Valley, bring it on,” the jockey said.
Zaaki’s rider Jamie Kah described the European import’s performance as “good”.
“(But) he just laid-in terribly today. I think he wasn’t just 100 per cent,” she said.
Bookmakers reacted to the Cox Plate chances of the Underwood Stakes runners by easing Zaaki from $4.2 to $6, I’m Thunderstruck from $7 to $8 and Mr Brightside from $8 to $15.
Alligator Blood was last night ruled as a $7 chance, the third favourite, after his all-the-way win.
Anamoe, unbeaten in two starts this preparation, maintains his place at the top of Cox Plate betting as the $3.50 pre-post favourite.
I’m Thunderstruck’s co-trainer Mick Price will wait until after the Might And Power (2000m) at Caulfield on October 8 before definitively outlining a plan for the gelding, who settled back in the field yesterday.
“The fork in the road for that horse has got to be the Might And Power to find out whether he’s a 2000-metre horse or he’s a miler,” Price told Racing.com.
“It’s very difficult to pick up a leader when they run four sectionals that are 12.5 seconds. I was a little bit disappointed he didn’t finish closer regardless, although I need to have a good look at the sectionals.”
Hugh Bowman, who received a nine-meeting suspension for his ride on Newhaven Park’s stallion prospect Mo’unga, says the five-year-old entire is on the right track ahead of the Cox Plate, for which he is now a $15 chance.
Mr Brightside’s jockey Craig Williams, who finished fifth of six in the Underwood, said the gelding had faced his toughest test to date.
“He has been so well–placed and today there were no hiding spots and under the circumstances of the race and the opposition, even though it is disappointing that we weren’t fighting the finish out, it was still a very gallant run and wasn’t beaten all that far,” Williams said.
Grahame Begg’s middle-distance horse Nonconformist (Rebel Raider) finished last of the six runners, seven lengths from Alligator Blood.
“He ran OK. He’s just looking for 2000 metres, and maybe a little bit older and just lost that turn-of-foot. 2000 next start and I’ll expect him to improve a lot,” Nonconformist’s jockey Jordan Childs said.
Alligator Blood has been one of the flag–bearers for sire All Too Hard (Casino Prince), one of four Group 1–winners who all have been successful multiple times at the top level, adding credence to the recent assertion by Vinery Stud’s Adam White that the stallion is no longer underrated by breeders, nor the overall market.
The six-year-old gelding, a winner of 11 of his 23 starts with prize-money of more than $3.6 million, is out of Gerry Harvey’s unraced Lake Superior (Encosta De Lago), a half-sister to Listed–winner Cantonese (Redoute’s Choice) and the stakes-placed Chateau Margaux (Redoute’s Choice) and Monteux (Medaglia d’Oro).
With the Cox Plate distance an unanswered question for Alligator Blood, his pedigree paints somewhat of a positive picture: his second dam Kylikwong (Red Ransom) ran second in the 2004 VRC Oaks (Gr 1, 2500m) and an Australasian Oaks (Gr 1, 2000m) and third in a South Australian Oaks (Gr 1, 2500m), while his sire All Too Hard (Casino Prince) was runner-up as a three-year-old in the 2012 Cox Plate.
Alligator Blood, who won the Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) at Flemington at three for original trainer David Vandyke, raced three times for Sunshine Coast trainer Billy Healey before joining Waterhouse and Bott’s stable.
Waltz On By to get chance to follow family’s Thousand Guineas tradition
Blueblood three-year-old Waltz On By (I Am Invincible) is likely to be given her chance at Group 1 level in next month’s Thousand Guineas (1600m), the same race both her mother and second dam won nine years apart, as the filly added to her family’s rich black-type history with a maiden stakes victory in yesterday’s Jim Moloney Stakes (Listed, 1400m).
The Arrowfield Stud-bred and owned Waltz On By, a granddaughter of the farm’s star mare Miss Finland (Redoute’s Choice) and the second foal of Group 1–winner Stay With Me (Street Cry), Waltz On By instantly became one of the most valuable fillies in training with her success in a blanket finish at Sandown at the post AFL Grand Final day Group 1 meeting.
Racing outside the leader, the three-year-old was able to hold on under Luke Nolen by a nose over Jenny Jerome (Churchill) ($31) and Hell Hath No Fury (Hellbent) ($41) who was another nose away in third.
Katherine Coleman, an assistant to Waltz On By’s trainer Peter Moody, immediately put The Thousand Guineas at Caulfield on October 12 on the agenda for the lightly raced filly, which is likely to see her clash with stablemate Boogie Dancer (Sooboog), a last-start winner of the Thousand Guineas Prelude (Gr 2, 1400m).
“We would have loved to see her get a bit of cover but it just didn’t pan out that way (and) Luke had no other option (but to go forward),” Coleman said.
“She obviously got there a little bit soon and was vulnerable late. My heart rate went through the roof that last little bit, but she hung on really well and (I’m) absolutely rapt with her going forward to the Thousand Guineas.
“We’ve always had the opinion that when she does get a bit of cover and switches off because she just wants to do things a bit hard at the moment when she’s out there vulnerable in front with no cover.”
A last-start Sandown winner in Benchmark 64 grade over 1300 metres, the Talindert Stakes (Listed, 1100m)–placed Waltz On By’s form lines received a boost earlier in the meeting when Bank Maur (Maurice), runner-up to the filly on September 7, won race four.
Nolen echoed Coleman’s comments about the speed of the race forcing his hand in riding Waltz On By in a more forward position than was intended.
“In a race without a lot of speed, she had been outside the leader. She might have a better turn-of-foot if we rode her with a cuddle so I’ve got to make a decision, I suppose over the next couple of weeks [this horse or Boogie Dancer],” Nolen said.
“She’s always had that (versatility) in her repertoire but we’ve been trying to get to come back a lot in her races. She’s had two trouble-free runs at her last two so that will hold her in good stead going forward.
“She’s going to be a live chance in a race like that [the Thousand Guineas].”
Miss Finland won the 2005 Thousand Guineas, and Stay With Me added the Group 1 race to her own record in 2015, while Arrowfield also won last year’s Thousand Guineas with the Hawkes Racing-trained Yearning (Snitzel).
The training partnership of Michael, Wayne and John Hawkes are also involved with the family of Stay With Me, paying $1.7 million for Waltz On By’s Dundeel (High Chaparral) half-sister at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale earlier this year.
Stay With Me also has a yearling colt by Dundeel and she is due to foal to Australia’s reigning champion sire I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) this year.
Miss Finland, aged 19, meanwhile, has an unnamed two-year-old daughter of Dundeel; a yearling colt by Castelvecchio (Dundeel), and she was covered last December by Dundeel again.