Laurie brimming with confidence ahead of Vinrock’s Group 1 bid
Victorian trainer Matt Laurie is brimming with confidence that a fresh edge can give exciting colt Vinrock (I Am Invincible) an advantage over his more experienced northern rivals as he attempts to complete a long-range plan of winning Saturday’s Inglis Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m).
Seeking to keep a perfect record intact, Vinrock was on Friday a $4.80 third favourite for the $1 million stallion-making feature, behind two rivals who’ve come out of the Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m).
Highly-rated Coolmore-Waller colt Wodeton (Wootton Bassett) heads betting at around $2.80 after his close second at Rosehill.
Second favourite at around $4.60 is Slipper fourth-placegetter Rivellino (Too Darn Hot), a son of Darley’s sensational stallion Too Darn Hot.
A $300,000 purchase from Rosemont Stud, as the second-top of the eight I Am Invincible yearlings sold at last year’s Inglis Premier sale, Vinrock comes into the Sires’ unbeaten in two starts, after first appearing in a Cranbourne barrier trial on February 3.
The third foal of VRC Matriarch Stakes (Gr 2, 2000m) winner Girl Gone Rockin’ (Redoute’s Choice), Vinrock debuted with a 3.25 length victory in a 1200-metre Pakenham two-year-old maiden as an odds-on favourite on February 20.
He stepped up to the VRC Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m) on March 8 and, sent out a $3.40 favourite in a field of 15, he again led throughout, scoring a commanding two-length victory.
Laurie, who is stabling the colt with John Thompson at Randwick while in Sydney, gave Vinrock a top-up barrier trial – and his first clockwise run – on an inner course of the track on March 28. Settled just behind midfield by regular rider Mark Zahra, the colt made good ground to be a 0.9 length second to promising Peter Snowden and China Horse Club colt Outer Banks (Capitalist).
While Wodeton and Rivellino could be described as more battle hardened after four starts each, Laurie is hoping “battle weary” will emerge as the more apt term at Randwick on Saturday, as the pair seek to back up from their grand final two weeks ago.
And he believes his colt – who he views as a star of the future – can emerge triumphant as he attempts an elite Sydney mission aimed at the Sires’ and the Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) which is almost 12 months in the making.
“My horse is the new kid on the block, whereas some of the others are pretty deep into their preparation,” Laurie told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“These horses coming out of a Slipper run will be hard to beat if they hold it together, but you’re hoping that maybe they go one run too far.
“I’m happy with my bloke. He’s in very good nick. I thought he trialled well the other day. He was back in the ruck a bit, which was a little bit different for him, and he accepted it nicely and he closed off really well, so it really served its purpose.
“He’s having four weeks between runs, so he’ll benefit from the exercise and from going the Sydney way, on a pretty tight inner track. Mark said he got a bit lost on the turn, but he was happy with how he went. He’ll learn a lot from it.
“From barrier one, he should be up in the first four and get a nice run. A couple might spear forward and he has the run in behind them.
“To be honest, I think he’ll run a hell of a race.”
Laurie was delighted to snare Vinrock for $300,000 – especially since he had no more in his budget.
“That was my last bid,” he said. “I thought he’d go for a lot more, really, so I was pretty happy with the purchase.
“He was a lovely, big, scopey horse, probably a little bit bigger than the I Am Invincibles I’ve come across, but a very clean colt, with good legs.
“He was never big and long and drawn out. He was big, and together, and balanced, and he’s proven that he’s been able to handle the workload very early. He’s a very tough, sound horse, with good ability and a good brain. He doesn’t overdo things, he comes back underneath the rider and can quicken up really well.
“When you’re assessing your stock as young horses, I had the Sires’ and the Champagne pencilled in as two races he’d be suited to. So it’s great that we’ve been able to get here.”
All going well into a Champagne run on April 19, Vinrock would then be put away until the spring. Laurie said there had been low level murmurs of interest in the colt from stud farms. Interest from Hong Kong could grow pending Saturday’s outcome, but Laurie is confident that if a Group 1 title eludes the colt this autumn, it will come soon enough.
“Whether he’s winning this weekend or not, he’s going to line up in plenty of Group 1s going forward,” he said. “I think he’ll grab one, given the way in which he’s training at the moment, plus he can only get better.
“I do think he should develop into a top-liner. He’s giving all the indications he’s going to be a pretty smart three-year-old for us. If you get to these sorts of races now, it sets him up really well because there’s a lot of good races going into in the spring.”
Laurie, who has a compact team of around 70 horses on his books, learned the hard way how difficult it is to win at the elite level.
His first Group 1 came with Escado (Casino Prince) in the 2013 South Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2500m). His next came eight years later – and even that had to be shared – when Portland Sky (Deep Field) dead-heated with Celebrity Queen (Redoute’s Choice) in the 2021 Oakleigh Plate (Gr 1, 1100m).
After Coleman’s (Pierata) second and third in last autumn’s Golden Slipper and ATC Sires’ Produce, Laurie still only had the 1.5 top tier titles to his name, but the outstanding Treasurethe Moment (Alabama Express) has changed that.
The Yulong homebred took the VRC Oaks (Gr 1, 2500m) in November, and at Tuesday’s rescheduled Rosehill meeting claimed a second top level triumph, making it seven wins on the trot, in the Vinery Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m).
After his long wait, Laurie – whose stable has attracted “a few more clients” thanks to its recent success – could this afternoon be celebrating two Group 1s in the space of five days.
“That would be a fairytale,” he said. “But, we’ve got a very good chance. Vinrock is going to make his own luck, and the horse is feeling really well.”
With Treasurethe Moment a raging favourite for next Saturday’s ATC Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m), and Vinrock likely to contest the Champagne as his last run of the campaign, Laurie could yet have seven Group 1s in his trophy cabinet by the end of the autumn.
Wodeton, Rivellino, and seven others stand in his way in the Sires’, however.
Trainer Chris Waller reported Wodeton – the $1.6 million purchase from Magic Millions Gold Coast for Coolmore’s Tom Magnier – had recovered well from his impressive Slipper run, when a fast-finishing 0.14 length second behind Marhoona (Snitzel), having had winkers added before that race.
“He’s come out of the Golden Slipper run really well,” Waller said on social media. “The winkers helped him. Ridden more conservatively, it certainly was a good result, to be beaten by a small margin.”
Wodeton, who has gate nine, is one of five rides for globetrotting jockey Ryan Moore on Randwick’s quadruple Group 1 card. Moore’s other mounts include the Coolmore-owned and Waller-trained colt Switzerland (Snitzel) in the TJ Smith Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m), and Waller’s Imperialist (Churchill) in the Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2400m).
Trainer Kris Lees is expecting a forward showing in the Sires’ from Rivellino, who won his first three starts – including the rich Inglis Millennium (RL, 1100m) – before closing hard for a 2.4 length fourth in the Slipper, from second-last on the turn.
“I can’t fault him,” Lees told ANZ. “He’s come through the Slipper well, there’s nothing to suggest he’s gone backwards, and he’s still thriving after a few runs this prep.
“He ran well in the Slipper after not much went right. We stepped a bit slow, and from there he was very good without a great deal of luck.
“I don’t think being slowly away is becoming a habit for him, but even so, it won’t have as big a consequence over the 1400 metres in the Sires’ if he does it again.
“He should be in the second half of the field, and it looks like there’ll be enough tempo for him to get his chance.
“I’ve very confident he’ll run well.”