Clean Energy gets back on track
Having suffered her first defeat when third over 1100 metres at Flemington on her previous start, the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained Clean Energy (3 f Zoustar – Solar Charged by Charge Forward) got back to winning ways on Saturday when scoring in the Don Casboult Classic (Gr 3, 1200m) at The Valley.
Ridden by Craig Williams, the daughter of Zoustar came home strongly inside the closing stages to beat Amelita (Zousain) by 0.8 lengths with a further 0.3 lengths back to Mckeyla (Shamus Award) in third.
“The plan was to roll forward, but Craig [Williams] got her into a nice rhythm, and around that bend she took off and finished too well. Very proud of the horse,” stable representative Elouise Dillon said.
“She’s been in the stable for a few weeks now. The Sydney stable has done a really good job with her. A beautiful ride, a beautiful horse and it’s great for the team to get this win.
“She really improved and had come on from that run. She galloped here on Tuesday. Craig thought she got through the ground well.
“I will leave that [her next start] to Gai and Adrian. We’ll see how she pulls up.”
Winning rider Williams was very happy to win Saturday’s race, named after the Moonee Valley Racing Club’s former chairman Don Casboult.
“It’s an honour to win a race in honour of an absolute gentleman and one of the people that has got Moonee Valley and the Cox Plate to where it is. It’s great to see Don here,” Williams said.
“In regards to my horse, Gai and the team have done a great job. I worked her here on Tuesday morning and loved the way she went for me. I spoke to Blake Shinn who rode her first-up and he gave me a bit of insight into as well.
“We did have a plan, but she had a different plan than we did and we found ourselves a lot further back. We just trusted her and she picked up and showed versatility, not that that is the way to ride her, but it show she can be quite versatile.
“I didn’t make any, she made them. I was really happy to follow Luke Currie [Mckelya]. I thought this is a really nice horse and I thought the quick back up would do it right, and it did.”