Cross Talk team hoping early step up in class can reap rewards
Former New Zealander Cross Talk (Keano) takes the next step of a burgeoning career with an unexpected rise to stakes grade at Rosehill today, with co-trainer Adrian Bott quietly confident his obvious class can carry the day.
The obscurely-bred, lightly-raced rising five-year-old has made a sharp impression on Sydney, albeit in off-peak grade, winning three of five starts since being plucked from obscurity – a debut win in a New Plymouth maiden – last year.
After winning at Hawkesbury in a two-start preparation last spring, the gelding resumed after two barrier trial wins – by five and eight lengths – to take a Canterbury Benchmark 72 (1250m), before finishing second to Jojo Was A Man in a Randwick Benchmark 78 (1400m).
He then followed that runner-up effort by winning his last start by almost four lengths over 1400 metres on a Randwick Heavy 9 on July 9 as a raging $2.20 favourite.
That win also came in Benchmark 78 class, and he was aimed at a conventional rise to Benchmark 88 class today. However, last Saturday’s Randwick abandonment forced a reshuffle in which that race was scrapped and replaced by the postponed Winter Championship (Listed, 1500m).
With little else suitable around, the Waterhouse-Bott camp have bitten the bullet for a class rise that’s come ahead of schedule. But the nature of Cross Talk’s last-start win – settled just behind a keen pace before surging clear of 12 rivals in the straight – has Bott optimistically eyeing today’s $160,000 quality handicap, where Cross Talk has the minimum 53-kilogram weight.
“He’s landed in stakes company a little sooner than expected. There was no real rush to get him there,” Bott told ANZ Bloodstock news.
“He’s probably in a race like this a start or two earlier than we would have naturally put him in, but we certainly feel he’s capable of being effective in this grade, and now is a good opportunity to capitalise on that.
“It’s not easy, and he’s thrown in against tougher opposition a little bit, but he’s a nice progressive horse so hopefully his class can get him through that inexperience he’s got. We feel he’s capable of being competitive, otherwise we’d have looked for other options.”
Bott felt full vindication for taking a punt on acquiring Cross Talk through the imperious style of his latest win.
“We take a bit of confidence from how he handled what was a really high-pressure race,” he said. “He sat on the speed, absorbed that pressure and was able to quicken off that very nicely.
“That’s a good indication you know you’ve got a classy animal. They can certainly show you elements of speed by running times and whatnot, but the better ones are able to handle that pressure. There’s more pressure as they step up in grade, and better-class horses are able to handle that. I guess that’s what separates them.”
With Rosehill rated a heavy 9 yesterday, Cross Talk was a slight favourite at around $3.30, just ahead of Jojo Was A Man. With Jean Van Overmeire taking over from Tim Clark on the minimum weight, he meets Jojo Was A Man on two-kilogram better terms than when second to him by three-quarters of a length at their last meeting.
The Winter Challenge also brings the long-awaited Australian debut of Gold Trip (Outstrip), a week later than planned due to last Saturday’s wash-out. Fourth in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (Gr 1, 2400m) in 2020, and controversially scratched by stewards on the eve of last year’s Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m), the five-year-old entire was last night an $8 chance for today, but is expected to relish longer races.
So too is Cross Talk, although Bott feels his exciting gelding will still be well suited by the 100-metre rise to 1500 metres today.
“Physically, there’s still good improvement to come, because he’s got some more maturing to do. That’s the exciting part,” Bott said.
“I feel he could become a 2000-metre horse for us, maybe even further in time. We weren’t in any rush to get him out to those trips yet, while he’s still maturing and putting it together, but it would open up a few more options. Plus, he’ll probably have to get out that little bit further going forward in any case. It’s going to be hard for him to remain at this current distance range as he goes up in class.
“At group level 1400-metre races, there are some quality horses who are very sharp. He may not be as sharp as them at this point, but he has got a nice high cruising speed and that showed with how the race worked out well for him last start. There was a lot of pressure on from the outset, but he took away some of the dash of the others and made it into a good stamina test.”
A late-bloomer, Cross Talk didn’t race until a late three-year-old – in mid-May last year – when he appeared in that 1200-metre maiden and won by four lengths against eight rivals. It may have been a moderate affair on a heavy track at New Plymouth, but there was enough in the win for the Waterhouse-Bott team to take bloodstock agent Phil Cataldo’s advice.
“Phil put him on our radar, and when we looked at the form and facts and figures, things lined up well,” said Bott, who syndicated the gelding to a selection of owners in the tried-horse market.
“Even though it was where it was, the figures for that win were quite strong, indicating a horse that was winning, and who was above average early on. Physically, he looked to have a lot more scope for improvement, so that gave us confidence as well.”
Should Cross Talk develop into a spring contender, it would be a dream advertisement for his sire, Keano (Pins). As it stands, with two Sydney metro wins, he’s already close to Keano’s best performer, status that will be enshrined if he becomes his first stakes-winner today.
Keano, whose other notable progeny are multiple Australian city winners Suspense, Elite Drake and Vieira, stands at Sentry Hill Farms, not far from Cross Talk’s maiden stage at New Plymouth, at a service fee of just $2,000 (plus GST). Bred by Waikato Stud’s Garry Chittick out of a Centaine (Century) mare in O’Really, who won one of three NZ starts, Keano was a $450,000 yearling purchase at the Sydney Easter Yearling Sale in 2007.
He went on to win six of his 27 starts as a sprinter for Melbourne trainer Danny O’Brien. His career peak came at his ninth start, winning Eagle Farm’s Lightning Handicap (Listed, 1000m) on a Heavy 10 in June, 2009, the start before a third in W.J Healy Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m). An ambitious Group 1 raid on New Zealand the following January brought a fifth in the Trentham Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) and a seventh in Te Rapa’s Waikato Sprint (Gr 1, 1400m).
Sold for $92,000 at the Inglis March Thoroughbred Sale of 2011 and commencing stud duties later that year, Keano stood three seasons in Australia before switching to New Zealand and Sentry Hill in 2015.
He’s had limited patronage – with 37 live foals in Australia and 65 through seven seasons in New Zealand – but overall, the rising 17-year-old’s stats have been fair. Despite no stakes winners, and only 12 black-type starters in that classification’s lowest two rungs, he’s had 22 winners worldwide from just 34 runners, with 15 from 20 in Australia and five from 12 in New Zealand.
Cross Talk is out of the unraced mare Mrs Cross (Cape Cross), who owns a patchy breeding record given he’s her fourth named foal from 12 seasons at stud, although the first – Man With The Plan (Citi Habit) – is another metro winner, having won an Eagle Farm maiden in 2013.