Keys hoping to unlock Star Witness filly’s promise in Prelude
Winsum’s half-sister Caliper earns debut in Blue Diamond lead-up at Caulfield on Saturday
Ken Keys, the Cranbourne trainer who continues to skirt around the edges of a yearling sale in his quest to unearth his stable’s next good horse, will have a throw at the stumps with an unraced Star Witness (Starcraft) filly in the Blue Diamond Prelude (Fillies) (Gr 2, 1100m).
Now training in partnership with his daughter Kasey, Keys says his belief in the ability of Winsum (Wandjina) led to him buying his year younger half-sister Caliper, who is set to run in the fillies Blue Diamond lead-up at Caulfield on Saturday, the same meeting at which the son of Wandjina (Snitzel) made his first appearance a year ago.
Winsum was described as “wayward” by Keys, with the lightly-raced three-year-old just back in training, but he is confident that Caliper is a far more professional racehorse at the same stage of her career.
In a vote of confidence, and on the advice of Keys, leading jockey Craig Williams has been booked to ride the newcomer this weekend.
“She has had a couple of nice trials but it is always hard to get a strong guide off those jump-outs. She tends to be pretty professional with what she does,” Keys told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday.
“It is very hard to go in unraced when you haven’t got a clear guide, but that is just how it has worked out.
“She has put her hand up to run. She is well-related to a family that we have got, and she is on the up and we won’t die wondering.”
At the time of purchasing Caliper for $70,000 from Supreme Thoroughbreds at last year’s Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale, Winsum had raced just once, a three-length seventh behind Hanseatic (Street Boss) and Rulership (I Am Invincible) in the colts and geldings Prelude (Gr 3, 1100m).
When recalling the filly as a yearling and her development since, Keys said: “She is a tidy filly. She was not a big, robust thing but she is tidy. She is a mature type of filly, but a bit of greenness might still be an issue for her.”
Winsum, meanwhile, underwent a major ‘gear change’ – a gelding operation – during his recent spell, which followed a two-start campaign in late spring and early summer, wrestling in an impressive maiden victory on his home track at Cranbourne and a second placing at Caulfield on December 16.
“He has just come back from being gelded. It has only got to straighten him up a little bit – he just got a bit wayward. We can only hope, I don’t want to pre-empt anything because there’s always been a bit of a boom on him,” Keys said.
“He will hopefully go on to be a racehorse now. He goes all right, there’s no worries about that, he just had to tidy it up a little bit.”
The ability displayed by Winsum and, more recently, Caliper also prompted Keys to take a punt on a Wandjina yearling out of their mother Vernier (Zizou), paying the unusual price of $4,999 for her through an Inglis Digital auction last October.
The trainer of 2019 Moonee Valley Vase (Gr 2, 2040m) winner Soul Patch (Shamus Award), who was also placed in the Victoria Derby (Gr 1, 2500m) and the Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) before injury curtailed his career, Keys was not sighted at the recent Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, nor will he be at Inglis Classic, but he intends to be active at his “home sales” in Tasmania and the Melbourne Premier auction in the coming weeks.
“We will go to those two as we haven’t had a chance to go anywhere else. Classic has come around a bit soon with all their zoning and all that. I know that is what it is right now, but it is a little bit hard to get organised for, but we will play (at the other sales),” he said.
Speaking of Soul Patch, a $45,000 Magic Millions Tasmanian Yearling Sale graduate, Keys did dig deep, going to $180,000 for his Alpine Eagle (High Chaparral) half-sister from the Armidale Stud draft at last year’s Premier sale, ensuring she joined her two siblings at his stable.
“One has raced (Indictment), who has probably been a shade disappointing,” Keys said.
“(The Alpine Eagle) is just back into the stables now and she is more of a three-year-old type. My impression of the Alpine Eagles is that they might have thrown to the High Chaparral side a little bit – or the one I have has, anyway.”