Keys confident of landing first Group 1 with Alibaba in Diamond
Ken Keys is optimistic his advanced colt Alibaba (Alabama Express) will make his late entry fee a worthwhile investment as he chases his veteran trainer’s first elite success in Saturday’s Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m).
Cranbourne-based Keys and his daughter and co-trainer Kasey on Monday took the step of paying the $55,000 to secure Alibaba’s place in the stallion-making juvenile feature, for which he’s on the sixth line of betting at $11.
The decision wasn’t a hard one, with only history standing in its way.
Alibaba was not among the original nominations, with Keys believing the lightly framed galloper would be more to the fore at three than two.
But after an easy barrier trial win, a debut third in the Merson Cooper Stakes (Listed, 1000m), a gritty victory in the Blue Diamond Preview (C&G) (Listed 1000m), and a luckless third in Randwick’s Inglis Millennium (RL, 1100m), Alibaba has presented an irresistible case.
“He won enough money in the Millennium so we can spend it on the late entry fee,” Keys said of Alibaba, whose $195,000 for running third at Randwick took his earnings to $369,500 from three starts.
As he strives to win a first Group 1 after 40 years of training for Keys, who with his daughter has some 25 horses in work, the richly dark coloured Alibaba will need to bring a correction to Keys’s perceptions on late entry fees, those observed and those felt personally.
In 1989, he paid up to have smart filly Saloon Rule (Ruling) start in the Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) after two wins and two placings in Melbourne juvenile stakes races. She gave him a good sight, but after leading weakened to finish seventh in a race won by Courtza (Pompeii Court) and in a field also including eventual 11-time stakes winner Show County (County) and triple Group 1 victor Stylish Century (Double Century).
“It was hard not to pay up for Alibaba. Probably the part that was stopping me was that I don’t think there’s been a good history for late pay-ups,” Keys told ANZ News.
“I’ve only had one go at it, and that didn’t pay off, but I don’t see a lot of people having a lot of success with late entry fees in general.”
Keys bought Alibaba from breeders Yulong at Inglis Classic for $115,000, with considerable interest in his third dam Balsamico (Redoute’s Choice).
She had thrown Keys’s former multiple stakes-placed gelding Masthead (Written Tycoon) – who he recalls as Written Tycoon’s (Iglesia) first metropolitan winner – and dual listed winner Diamonds, a mare he’d watched closely since she was by the best horse he’s prepared – and bred – to date, by Rich Enuff, another by Written Tycoon.
The yearling Alibaba was an impressive type, and has developed into what his trainer calls a magnificent specimen, but Keys would not have bet money on him showing up at two like he has – partly the reason he wasn’t nominated for the Blue Diamond or the Slipper.
“I own most of my horses, I have about 20 yearlings a year, and you’ve got to make these nomination decisions in June,” Keys said.
“So I paid him up for the Inglis races and I thought if he was good enough he’d buy his way into the Blue Diamond, which subsequently he has.
“But I always thought he’d be a better three-year-old. I didn’t expect this. He’s a horse who’s got so much more to develop. So this, the success that he’s had so far, is an absolute bonus.
“He’s very athletic, but ‘skinny’ is a good word for him. He’s about 490 kilos. He’s a fantastic looking animal, but he doesn’t look like a two-year-old runner, that’s for sure.”
Alibaba shot up the Blue Diamond betting charts with a tough 0.4-length win over five rivals in the Preview on January 24, as a $3.20 favourite when, Keys says, he was “ridden upside down” by Craig Newitt in sitting in the one-one spot rather than his preferred rearward position.
He jumped from gate 12 of 16 in the Millennium as a $26 shot, settled last for Newitt, was blocked for room behind the ruck for most of the straight but once clear rocketed home in the last 25m to claim third, beaten 0.77 lengths.
“He’s been straightforward all the way through and has kept improving,” Keys said. “Everything you asked him to do he did. He worked with his own age group and he’d beat them home every time.
“When he won the Preview, it was certainly not his racing style but he still got the job done.
“Then in Sydney, he didn’t get on his right leg at all, didn’t handle that way of going, looked very ordinary coming around the home turn. Once he did get balanced up, he ran into road blocks all the way up the straight, before he jumped out of the ground late on.
“That made me think the 1200 [metres] of the Blue Diamond should suit him. I reckon he’ll make a good miler at three, so the 1200 now should be up his alley.”
Striving to become Yulong sire Alabama Express’s (Redoute’s Choice) second elite winner after four-timer Treasurethe Moment, Alibaba is raced by Keys and wife Louise and a group of regular clients, while West Australian stud Ridgeport Farm bought in after his first barrier trial.
WA interest was spurred when full-sister Strideaway – sent to Perth after a $25,000 purchase at the Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale – won twice at Ascot before taking third in the Magic Millions WA 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) at Pinjarra. Luckily for Keys’s budget, that came four days after Keys bought Alibaba.
Strideaway and Alibaba are out of yet another Written Tycoon in Rowsthorn, an Adelaide city winner over 1000 metres. The pair’s deeds have helped third foal – a colt by Yulong’s Lucky Vega (Lope De Vega) – earn the mare a sales upgrade by being accepted into Inglis Easter this year.
Placing no blame in Newitt for Alibaba’s luckless Millennium run, connections have stuck with him for the Blue Diamond, where he’ll seek a third success after piloting Mick Price’s pair Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt) in 2016 and Samaready (More Than Ready) in 2012.
Keys, who returned to Inglis Classic last week and bought another Alabama Express colt for $40,000 and a son of Flying Artie (Artie Schiller) for $12,000, has been training for more than 40 years.
He’s tasted stakes success 30 times but a Group 1 has eluded him, though he’s come close on a few occasions.
The most agonising came through his triple black type victor Rich Enuff in the Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) of 2014.
Starting a $1.80 favourite after completing a stakes grade hat-trick with a 2.5-length romp in the Guineas Prelude (Gr 3, 1400m), Rich Enuff had to work across to the lead from gate ten and was fought for the lead throughout. He was still being hailed as the winner deep into the straight before being claimed late in a 0.3-length second to Shooting To Win (Northern Meteor).
Keys’s triple Group winner of late last decade Spanish Reef (Lope De Vega) ran third in the Empire Rose Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m), as did his stayer Like A Carousel (Helike) in the 2015 Sydney Cup (Gr 1, 3200m).
“I haven’t won a Group 1 yet, so it’d be nice to top it off if we can get one on Saturday,” said the 67-year-old, who says his daughter “does most of the work now” at their stable.
Asked about his confidence levels of breaking through in the Blue Diamond, he said: “Oh, they’re pretty high. The media will build up the others so we’ll sit in the background a bit, or I hope we can, but I think we’re in with a genuine chance.”
In the foreground, bookmakers give Price a strong chance of claiming his third Blue Diamond, this time with co-trainer Michael Kent Jnr. The market was headed on Monday by their colts Big Sky (Bivouac) at $4 and Guest House (Home Affairs) at $5, ahead of Danny O’Brien’s colt Closer To Free (Street Boss) at $6.
Meanwhile, Team Hayes opted not to mirror Keys by paying a late entry fee for Hard Kick (All Too Hard) after his debut win in Saturday’s Talindert Stakes (Listed, 1100m). Ben Hayes said the gelding would instead be aimed towards the Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) on March 21, for which he’s currently a $26 chance.
Hard Kick is also not nominated for that $5 million feature, but could win his way in by claiming a qualifying lead-up race.