Randwick trials-double for Waterhouse-Bott juveniles

Written By Jessica Owers

Cover image courtesy of Ashlea Brennan

Royal Randwick was host to an 18-race trial meeting on Tuesday morning, and among it was four events for the 2-year-olds. Early in proceedings, co-trainers Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott sent out two winners, namely the Russian Revolution colt Rise Of The Masses and the Gold Standard filly Golden Queen.

Both were comfortable winners of their respective events, with Rise Of The Masses winning for Go Bloodstock by 2.41l. It was the colt’s second trial this preparation after a runner-up finish to Athletica (Exceed And Excel) on his home track on November 11.

Likewise, Golden Queen won driven-out by 1.88l, but she had a few more runs behind her. The filly was eighth and third in her previous trials this preparation before Tuesday’s winning effort.

Both trials were open events over 1050 metres on the Randwick turf, with Rise Of The Masses putting in the slightly sharper time of 1:04.02, the last 600 metres in 35.61s, as against Golden Queen’s winning time of 1:04.78, the last 600 metres a full second slower in 36.6s.

Russian Revolution keeps on

Rise Of The Masses was one of two trial winners by Russian Revolution on Tuesday alone. The other was Russian Warrior, who was successful at Doomben over 1000 metres.

The pair is part of a tally of trial winners that the Newgate stallion has enjoyed since the juveniles began hitting the racetracks, and they come after the win of Russian Conquest (Russian Revolution) in the Max Lees Classic at Newcastle nearly a fortnight ago.

That victory provided his sire with his first winner, and all of these 2-year-olds are from the first crop of Russian Revolution, who has just under 40 yearlings heading to the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale in January.

Rise Of The Masses was a homebred for Go Bloodstock, and the second surviving foal from the stakes-winning Bernardini (USA) mare Ruud Awakening.

Rudd Awakening won the G1 Auckland Diamond S. and a pair of Listed races before she was sold at the 2015 Magic Millions National Sale. She went to Paul Moroney Bloodstock for $675,000 from the draft of Attunga Stud.

Adrian Bott said Rise Of The Masses was dominant in Tuesday’s win, which he was expecting to see.

“We were expecting quite a bit from him after what we’ve seen at home,” the co-trainer said. “He went well in his first trial on the polytrack, which I don’t think was to his liking. He showed good improvement getting back on the turf, and he extended well under a bit of pressure.”

Jockey James McDonald was aboard for the win, and he gave the trainer positive feedback afterwards.

“It’s good to have that in line with what we were thinking going into the trials, so it was good to see the horse put it all together,” Bott said.

The first for Gold Standard

Golden Queen, meanwhile, was the first progeny of her sire, Gold Standard, to trial. Like Russian Revolution, the Spendthrift stallion is having his first crop hitting the tracks this season.

Gold Standard was trained by Waterhouse and Bott through his 2017 career, which brought him a win in the G2 Stan Fox S. plus a runner-up finish to Dracarys (Snitzel) in the G3 Up And Coming S. He stands at Spendthrift Australia for $5500 (inc GST).

“Gold Standard was a very talented horse for us, and a beautiful horse to look at,” said Bott. “He had only the one preparation for us before going amiss, so we never really got to see the true ability of him, but I felt we had a good insight into him when this filly came along.”

Two-year-old filly Golden Queen was bred by Spendthrift, a daughter of the unraced Elusive Quality (USA) mare Queens Plaza. The second dam in this filly’s pedigree is Danendri (Danehill {USA}), who won the G1 Australian Oaks, plus the G1 Australia S. and G2 Wakeful S.

She is also the dam of the stakes winners Banc De Fortune (Galileo {Ire}) and Zingam (NZ) (Zabeel {NZ}).

Golden Queen was selected by Waterhouse and Bott straight out of the Spendthrift paddock.

“We were presented with an opportunity to purchase some of Spendthrift’s stock straight off the farm,” Bott said. “This filly was a great example of what the stallion and the farm has been able to produce, and through the advice of Garry Cuddy, we headed down to Spendthrift to have a look.”

Bott said Golden Queen was showing plenty of ability at home but wasn’t quite putting it all together in her trials.

“She was doing a few things wrong, mainly at the start,” the trainer said. “Particularly in the shorter trials, she was giving herself too much to do, so we really wanted to take her back and give her that proper grounding before going to the races. She was able to show a lot more tactical speed today (Tuesday), taking up a good position in running and it was good to see her able to put herself into it.”

Bott said the filly would likely head to the races in a fortnight’s time, or at least sometime in December.

Newgate sires again

Across the remainder of Tuesday morning at Randwick, Newgate Farm enjoyed 2-year-old trial results for both of its gun residents, Capitalist and Deep Field.

In the colours of owner Mystery Downs, Junqueira (Capitalist) was successful by 0.32l for the juvenile fillies, while California Deeply (Deep Field) was a narrow winner for the colts and geldings. They won for trainers John O’Shea and the Snowden team respectively.

Junqueira is the second foal from the Stormy Atlantic (USA) mare Bibby (USA), who herself is from the American stakes winner Love Cove (USA) (Not For Love {USA}). Junqueria was sold at this year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale by Newgate Farm, going to Mystery Downs and John Foote Bloodstock for $80,000.

California Deeply, meanwhile, was sold at the same Sale, realising $380,000 for Coolmore Stud by the Hong Kong-based Asian Bloodstock Services. The colt is the fourth foal from the Group-placed mare Murtle Turtle (Murtajill), which is the family of Singapore winner Excavator (Happy Giggle).

Murtle Turtle was sold at this year’s Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale by Kenmore Lodge, heading to Merricks Station and Group 1 Bloodstock (FBAA) for $180,000.