Written by Jessica Owers
Cover image courtesy of Ashlea Brennan
Warwick Farm, hot and blustery on Tuesday, hosted a busy morning of trials on the turf. Among them were five heats for the 2-year-olds and it was a clean sweep for co-trainers Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott.
The stable sent out five winners and they were Sicilian (I Am Invincible), Aditi (Exceed And Excel), Perfect Proposal (Russian Revolution), Coincide (Invader) and Ganbare (Maurice {Jpn}).
Gallery: Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott's five Warwick Farm trial winners, images courtesy of Ashlea Brennan
The five youngsters came from such ownerships as China Horse Club and Rosemont Farm, among others.
Two-year-old Sicilian was first off the blocks in Heat 7. With James McDonald aboard, she posted a narrow victory over the Michael Freedman-trained Madeira Sunrise (I Am Invincible), and it was the first time the filly had been seen since she was sixth to Platinum Jubilee (Zoustar) in the G3 Gimcrack S.
On its own, the trial was a good one. Sicilian clocked the second-best time of the morning among the 2-year-old fillies, but interest also lay in her having a full sister catalogued in next week’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
Lot 262 will be offered by Yarraman Park and, up at the sales complex in Bundall, co-trainer Adrian Bott was already inspecting when TDN AusNZ caught up with him.
Lot 262 - I Am Invincible x Pursuits (filly) | Image courtesy of Magic Millions
“I thought Sicilian ran a great race in the Gimcrack on debut,” Bott said. “She just peaked in her run, but she was always going to be a filly that got better as she matured. Again today (Tuesday), she’s a big, strong filly that needs a good bit of work to get her fit. You could see that in her trial, and hopefully it will bring her on in leaps and bounds.”
Sicilian, herself, is a graduate of Yarraman Park’s draft at the 2022 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale. She cost $650,000 when bought by Bott and Waterhouse alongside Kestrel Thoroughbreds.
This is the sharp family of the Gimcrack winner Jorda (Exceed And Excel), and also the R. Listed Inglis Banner winner Espaaniyah (I Am Invincible).
“Sicilian is a stronger style of filly,” Bott said. “She could potentially be one that we see resume in a stakes race at the end of the month or beginning of the autumn carnival.”
“Sicilian is a stronger style of filly. She could potentially be one that we see resume in a stakes race at the end of the month or beginning of the autumn carnival.” - Adrian Bott
Clean sweep
For Rosemont Stud, Aditi was a winner of Heat 8 with jockey Regan Bayliss. She posted a 0.55l victory ahead of Mumbai Muse (Zoustar) and Figment (Not A Single Doubt).
Aditi was second on debut in the Listed Maribyrnong Trial S. on October 1, and she was picked up by Rosemont for $310,000 as a weanling at the 2021 Magic Millions National Weanling Sale. Consigned by Burnewang North Pastoral, she’s a daughter of Witches (Lonhro), who was trained by Richard Freedman and who is a half-sister to the Group 3-winning Whiskey Neat (Denman).
In Heat 9, the Russian Revolution filly Perfect Proposal made it a two-horse race with the Annabel Neasham-trained Learning To Fly (Justfy {USA}). The latter posted a narrow win for Waterhouse and Bott in the good time of 46.75s with Regan Bayliss.
Perfect Proposal was second in the Gimcrack on debut, just 1.19l worse off than Platinum Jubilee. In the China Horse Club-Newgate Farm colours, this filly cost Waterhouse, Bott and Kestrel Thoroughbreds $420,000 when bought from Sledmere Stud at the 2022 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale.
Bringing up the colts and geldings on Tuesday, Coincide won Heat 10 with Nash Rawiller by 1.39l. This Invader colt cost the trio $320,000 when bought from Tony Bott’s Evergreen Stud Farm for $320,000.
He’s a half-brother to the dual Group 1 winner Converge (Frankel {GB}) and he was second on debut in the Kirkham Plate last October. He was then unplaced in the Golden Gift in November before Tuesday’s winning trial.
Coincide as a yearling | Image courtesy of Inglis
Finally, the 2-year-old Maurice (Jpn) colt Ganbare whipped in the stable’s juvenile clean-sweep of the morning. Ganbare is the only unraced 2-year-old of the five, with just two trials to his name for Dodmark Thoroughbreds.
The colt was bought by Dodmark for $260,000 at the 2022 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale. He’s a son of the Redoute’s Choice mare Mardi, in turn a daughter of the Group 3-winning Arrowfield broodmare, now retired, Bianca (NZ) (Painted Black {Jpn}).
Good hand from last year’s sales
For Adrian Bott, at least four of these five youngsters showed enormous potential pre-Christmas.
“They showed a lot of indications early,” the trainer said. “They were horses that had previous campaigns and had shown us plenty, so we have a line on them with some autumn targets. I think that’s an advantage at this point, having those previous campaigns. You want to see that improvement in them, coming back this time in. It shows we’re on the right path with them.”
Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott | Image courtesy of Bronwen Healy
Bott is on the Gold Coast right now. He’s got a full hand of inspections before the first yearling sale of the year kicks off. It’s a busy period, so it’s a relief that all is humming along nicely at Tulloch Lodge.
“A couple of these will have different paths, but most of our 2-year-olds that have been precocious enough to have pre-Christmas campaigns will have goals to qualify for the Golden Slipper,” the trainer said. “They’ll have different ways of getting there, obviously.
“Some will be up here going through the Magic Millions Race Series, and some are coming back for an early campaign in Sydney. Some are down in Melbourne. If they can be competitive in their respective races, the grand final would certainly be Golden Slipper representation.”
“A couple of these will have different paths, but most of our 2-year-olds that have been precocious enough to have pre-Christmas campaigns will have goals to qualify for the Golden Slipper.” - Adrian Bott
Three months is a long time in racing, but with stakes performances already behind a number of Tuesday’s trial winners, the picture is healthy for the stable.
“We were fortunate to be quite active at the sales last year, and that gave us a strong hand with young horses coming through,” Bott said. “We do like to focus on developing the young stock, and we’ve been in that rebuilding phase the last couple of seasons.
“That’s put the right types of horses into the stable to target these early races, and having that early education and previous campaigns really does help at this time of year.”
