Written by Paul Vettise
Images courtesy of AAP Photos
It’s all quiet on the home front for champion trainers Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman with New Zealand racing in lockdown, but they are still very much in the running for another major Australian 3-year-old prize.
Quick Thinker (So You Think {NZ}) was sent to Sydney with classic aspirations and the colt, who is in the care of Baker’s son Bjorn at Warwick Farm, showed he was a live contender with victory on Saturday in the G2 TAB Tulloch S.
“We were just a little bit nervous about the 2000 metres so it was good to see him run it out strongly,” Forsman said. “His better victories have been at shorter trips and he’s not a big, rangy staying type.
“He got into a good rhythm and he was in a good spot and got through the ground better than most. Assuming racing keeps going, he’ll have a crack at the Derby.”
“We were just a little bit nervous about the 2000 metres so it was good to see him run it out strongly." - Andrew Forsman
The Rosehill race has proved a reliable guide to the G1 Australian Derby with the last three winners Angel Of Truth (Animal Kingdom {USA}), Levendi (Pierro) and Jon Snow (NZ) (Iffraaj {GB}) all successful in the Tulloch in their lead-up outings.
Past success
Jon Snow was trained by Baker and Forsman and they also prepared Mongolian Khan to claim the Derby in 2015 and Dundeel (NZ) in 2013 while in 2008 Nom Du Jeu (NZ) triumphed for Baker, who has now won the Tulloch five times, before Forsman joined him in partnership.
Success in last season’s Listed Champagne S. over 1600 metres at Ellerslie earned him his first trip across the Tasman and he opened that campaign with victory in the G3 Ming Dynasty and placed in the G3 Gloaming S.
Quick Thinker winning the G2 TAB Tulloch S. | Image courtesy of AAP Photos
The colt, who carries the colours of OTI Racing, had a couple of preparatory runs at home this campaign before he was dispatched to Sydney and finished third behind the crack filly Funstar (Adelaide {Ire}) in the G2 Phar Lap S. before proving superior in the Tulloch.
“Obviously, that form stacks up well and it’s pretty heavy and you need a good, fit horse that handles it really well,” winning rider James McDonald said.
Quick Thinker lobbed along in fourth or fifth spot one off the fence before McDonald peeled wide 600 metres from home and they were upsides with the leaders at the top of the straight.
Authoritative display
They took control of the race 350 metres from home and he was never in danger from that point, holding 1.3l on Zebrowski (NZ) (Savabeel) at the post. Diasonic (Reset) was given every chance in the trail and battled on for third ahead of Relucent (NZ) (Savabeel).
“They are making hard work of it, but he is a proven wet-tracker and he got through it well and he’ll be a force to be reckoned with in the Derby,” McDonald said.
Quick Thinker was rated a 15-1 chance for the Derby prior to the Tulloch and was afterwards trimmed to be an 11-1 prospect.
A half-brother to the multiple winner and Group performer The August (I Am Invincible) Quick Thinker was a $100,000 Inglis Easter Yearling Sale graduate where he was purchased out of Coolmore’s draft.
His dam Acouplamas (Al Maher) won a pair of minor races and is from the staying family of the G1 VRC Derby winner and sire Blackfriars whose sister Larrocha won the G1 South Australian Oaks while a brother Manton also won an edition of the Tulloch.
