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Watch Me Rock leads home fine Railway Stakes quinella for Team Williams
Trevor Marshallsea
ANZ News
Watch Me Rock (Awesome Rock) raised his West Australian-based sire’s first elite-level winner and gave jockey William Pike a huge decision to make on streaking to victory in the first top-tier feature of the Perth summer, the Railway Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m).
Pike steered the Grant and Alana Williams trained five-year-old gelding to a clear-cut victory in Saturday’s time-honoured handicap - the jockey’s first Group 1 success since he claimed four of them in 2021-22.
Forty minutes earlier he had ridden King Of Light (Earthlight) when the Dan Morton-trained three-year-old gelding won the WA Guineas (Gr 2, 1600m).
Pike will now have the choice of riding either horse in the $1.5 million Northerly Stakes (Gr 1, 1800m), also at Ascot on December 6.
Known for pulling the right rein in most situations, the Wizard of the West said the decision would likely give him “a few sleepless nights - but we’ll worry about that when the time comes”.
Bookmakers feel the choice is an easy one. After Saturday’s meeting, King Of Light was wound into a $3 favourite for the Northerly, while Watch Me Rock is on the fourth line of betting at $8.
In any event, Watch Me Rock’s Railway performance was full of merit as he brought a first Group 1 winner among six stakes victors for Gold Front Thoroughbred Breeding stallion Awesome Rock (Fastnet Rock).
Sent out a $3.30 favourite, Watch Me Rock was settled in the one-one spot by Pike, outside stablemate and $5.50 second-favourite Western Empire (Iffraaj), who won the race in 2021.
Pike presented Watch Me Rock on straightening and sent him to the lead at the 200 metres, and despite the hint of a threat from Western Empire to his inside, was largely untroubled in a 0.75 length victory.
What's On
Western Empire, who was ridden by Billy Egan after Pike chose Watch Me Rock, took second ahead of $61 bolter Sentimental Hero (Al Maher) for Peter Fernie.
The eastern states raiders fared poorly, with Chris Waller’s Osipenko (Pierro) seventh at $11, Team Archibalds’ Depth Of Character (Deep Field) 11th at $11, and Bjorn Baker’s Iowna Merc (Winning Rupert) 13th at $21.
Watch Me Rock’s victory, under 54 kilograms, was special for the husband and wife Williams team. While they’d won the Railway five times previously, those victories had been as private trainers for giant WA-based owner and breeder Bob Peters.
This was the couple’s first elite-level triumph since becoming public trainers and, like Pike, their first since 2021-22, their last season before they split with Peters.
Asked how he rated his sixth Railway win, Grant Williams said: “I’m going to go out on a limb and say it’s my best one, because we’re public trainers now.
“We’ve had so much support over the last three years to get back to where we were. A lot of people thought, ‘Without Peters, you’re nobody’ [but] we go good.”
He added: “We won the Gold Rush, won Perth Cups, but we hadn’t won a Group 1. We’ve won a Group 1 now.”
“Pikey’s got it right again. I honestly thought he was on the wrong one
Celebrating his stable’s Railway quinella, Williams praised Pike for his ride, confessing he’d felt the jockey should have chosen to ride the seven-year-old Western Empire, the topweight with 58 kilograms.
“Pikey’s got it right again. I honestly thought he was on the wrong one,” Williams told Thoroughbred Central.
“It worked out better for the stable for him to ride Watch Me Rock. As much as we love Billy Egan, he couldn’t ride 54 kilos.”
Pike admitted he wondered if he’d made the right choice when Western Empire powered home along the rails.
“When he got a very nice passage through I thought, ‘Oh this isn’t good’,” said Pike, adding he’d been pleasantly surprised by Watch Me Rock’s performance.
“I didn’t expect to be that close, and I didn’t expect to hit the front that soon. Credit to the horse, credit to the [Williams] team. They turn them out for big races like no one else can.”
Pike added he could breathe “a sigh of relief” after breaking his top-level drought with his 18th career Group 1 win.
“I suppose, at this stage of my career I judge myself on how I perform in the big races. It’s been a few years since I’ve won a Group 1. It’s hard to say you’re the best when you’re not winning Group 1s,” the 39-year-old said.
Watch Me Rock is among six stakes winners from 117 runners - at 5.1 per cent - for Awesome Rock, the 2016 VRC Mackinnon Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) hero who’s currently standing his ninth season at stud at Gold Front, for $7,975.
Passed in at the Magic Millions Perth Yearling Sale of 2022, Watch Me Rock was retained by breeder Graham White of WA stud Ridgeport Farm, who races him with three co-owners.
The gelding is the first live foal out of What Choux Want (Jimmy Choux), who was Group 2 placed in New Zealand and is a half-sister to Belle Du Nord (Reliable Man) who won a Group 2 and was twice Group 1 placed, also east of the Tasman.
What Choux Want now has a yearling colt by Long Leaf (Fastnet Rock) and a filly foal by Maschino (Encosta De Lago).
King Of Light shines in WA Guineas
Exciting three-year-old King Of Light confirmed himself the latest star of the west as he remained unbeaten with a breathtaking win in Saturday’s WA Guineas at Ascot.
Sent out a raging $1.75 favourite in his fifth start, the Dan Morton-trained gelding had to show all his class to overcome some adversity early in the home straight to earn the victory.
Settling midfield on the fence under a strong tempo for William Pike from gate four of 13, King Of Light looked in danger of not gaining a run after the field turned for home.
But after squeezing through a narrow gap at the 200 metres, he tore after leader Heeza Phoenix (Grunt) and came away to score by 1.14 lengths.
Heeza Phoenix held on for second at $6.50 for Mitchell Pateman, ahead of Daniel and Ben Peace’s Rock Fest (Awesome Rock) at $4.
Bred by WA-based Impressive Racing from the first crop of former Darley shuttler Earthlight (Shamardal), King Of Light was a $120,000 buy at the Magic Millions Perth Yearling Sale for Morton, and has become a headline act in Perth.
He didn’t debut until the last month of his two-year-old season, winning in metro class at Pinjarra, and following that up with another city win at Belmont.
Resuming as a three-year-old, he took the Belgravia Stakes (Listed, 1200m) by 0.19 lengths and the Fairetha Stakes (Listed, 1400m) by 0.37 lengths, before relishing the rise to 1600 metres for Saturday’s victory.
Morton was left to marvel at both horse and jockey after a Guineas win that shot King Of Light to the top of betting, at $3, for Ascot’s Northerly Stakes on December 6.
“When he was rolling back towards the fence I thought, ‘Jeez we’re gonna need some luck here,” Morton told Thoroughbred Central regarding those early moments in the home straight.
“But with Pikey on top, you just sort of back the fact that he’s going to find a way and he does.
“And the horse is very good. Obviously he’s got a big motor, but he’s got a laid-back demeanour. He’s a beautiful horse to train. Five from five - not many do it, so there’s a lot of upside.
“He had a torrid time leading into the first-up run, but he is the real deal.”
Three-year-olds have a strong record in the WFA Northerly, winning six of the past 15 editions, and Morton essentially confirmed King Of Light would now head to the $1.5 million feature.
“It’s been in the back of my mind for a long time. Obviously everything’s got to go great … but I think he’d be right amongst it,” Morton said.
“with Pikey on top, you just sort of back the fact that he’s going to find a way and he does
Pike conceded he was worried aboard King Of Light on Saturday - both before the race and entering the home straight.
“I was quite concerned before the race. He was quite fired up for him. He’s normally the most casual horse you’d find, but today he was just a little bit agitated,” the winning jockey said.
“[Early in the straight] I was very concerned. All I wanted to do was follow Chris Parnham [on Rock Fest] but he didn’t find when he needed to and that left me in a very sticky situation.
“We had to think thin for a couple of those gaps, but I just love his attitude. He’s like, ‘Yep, can do’.”
King Of Light is the fourth of five named foals for the winning and city-placed mare Queen’s Parade (Dalghar), who’s also had Perth city-winning brothers by Impending (Lonhro) in Changing Guard and King’s Parade.
Queen’s Parade, a half-sister to Newcastle Tibbie Stakes (Gr 3, 1350m) winner Spirit Bird (Savabeel), now has a yearling filly by Blue Point (Shamardal), and a filly foal by Pierata (Pierro).
King Of Light hails from the first of three crops by Earthlight, who last shuttled to Australia in 2023, and is one of the stallion’s two Australian stakes winners from 23 runners, at 8.7 per cent.
A dual Group 1 winner at two, Earthlight has four black type victors worldwide from 148 runners, at 2.7 per cent, and awaits his first elite-level winner. Given he’ll carry only 52 kilograms, many good judges will be betting on King Of Light to provide it in the Northerly.
Price predicting bigger and better from Sabaj
Mick Price hailed the emerging Sabaj (Manhattan Rain) as a likely star of the autumn after the lightly raced four-year-old claimed his black type breakthrough with an imposing win in Saturday’s Cranbourne Cup (Listed, 1600m).
Starting a well-supported $3.30 favourite, Sabaj gave Price his fourth win in the race and jockey Beau Mertens his third winner for the day, after a well-judged ride helped the gelding to his fifth win from eight starts.
Jumping from gate 12 of 13, Sabaj settled quietly in third-last position off a solid tempo. Mertens started a lengthy run from the 600 metres, circling the field to stalk the leaders five wide around the turn, before Sabaj hit the lead at the 100 metres and came away to score by 0.75 lengths.
The Robbie Griffiths-trained Enxuto (Lean Mean Machine) also made strong ground from the rear to take second as a $6.50 third elect, just ahead of Ciaron Maher’s Holymanz (Almanzor) at $16.
It was Sabaj’s first black type win, following seconds at Morphettville last autumn in three-year-old Group 2 and Listed events, and Price feels the unfashionably bred miler can go on to bigger and better races after a spell.
He has a template to follow in the stable. Price - and co-trainer Michael Kent Jnr - took the Cranbourne Cup last year when Globe (Charm Spirit) also claimed his first stakes win. That gelding is now an elite-level winner, having taken last month’s Might And Power (Gr 1, 2000m) at Caulfield.
“We’ve got the autumn in front of us here with this horse,” said Price.
“This is sort of a brand new horse. He’s perfectly sound, feet, knees, fetlocks lovely, he’s lightly raced, good ability, clean winded. And I think if we look after him…
“I wouldn’t say he’s a tough horse - that’s not how we treat him - but if we’re gelling with him and we treat him right, we’ll have a lovely horse in the autumn and we can chase a good race.”
“From the feel he gave me today he’s a very very nice horse and he’s only going to get better and bette
Price praised the training facilities at Cranbourne - his stable’s home base - and said the key to Sabaj was his carefully tailored training regimen.
“[It’s] probably his work and what he copes with,” the trainer told Racing.com. “That’s the difficult part of our training isn’t it? When do you gel and when don’t you?
“I’ve trained enough losers to know I’m not gelling with many of them. But I feel some horses we gel with, and we’ve got his [Sabaj’s] work right.
“We don’t overdo him and he’s clean-winded and we think he appreciates that way of doing things.”
Price also paid credit to the in-form Mertens, whose Cup victory gave him seven winners from his past 14 rides.
“Sometimes the outside gates, when you want to ride them cold, are good,” he said.
“It worked out well. There was just enough tempo, he balanced up nicely, relaxed nicely, finished off strongly.
“I did say [to Mertens], ‘Be the deepest horse; don’t follow anything into the race’, because I wasn’t confident that the right horse was in the race where we would be.
“So I’m very happy. I would say we’ll probably put him away now. He should have some sort of rating to have a nice horse in the autumn.”
Mertens said the race had gone perfectly to plan, and echoed Price’s assertion Sabaj was a top-class horse in the making.
“I don’t think it could’ve worked out any better really from the gate we had,” he said.
“I just let him travel naturally into a position he was comfortable in. We ended up on the back of Steparty in a three-wide line. I just got dragged enough into the race that I didn’t have to do too much work, but when I popped him out, he just accelerated that quickly beneath me.
“He put the race to bed very quick. From the feel he gave me today he’s a very very nice horse and he’s only going to get better and better.”
The homebred Sabaj is the second of three named foals for the unraced Bouzy (Uncle Mo), whose only other runner Tipsy Vixen (Foxwedge) is a city winner in Adelaide.
The nine-year-old Bouzy, who hasn’t had any offspring put through a sale, now has a yearling colt and a colt foal, both by Peltzer (So You Think).
Sabaj’s win provided Manhattan Rain with his 21st individual stakes winner worldwide from 453 runners, at 4.6 per cent.
Jigsaw seals big-race double for Manhattan Rain at Cranbourne
West Australian-based stallion Manhattan Rain (Encosta De Lago) sealed a feature double on the other side of the country when the born-again Jigsaw won the second edition of Cranbourne slot race The Meteorite (1200m) on Saturday.
Geisel Park Stud will have been cheering loudly when emerging Manhattan Rain four-year-old Sabaj took the Cranbourne Cup at the eastern Melbourne track’s feature day,
but 40 minutes later they were seeing double when their stallion’s seven-year-old son Jigsaw raised a hat-trick with a dominant all-the-way win in the $1 million Meteorite.
Ridden superbly by apprentice Logan Bates, $6 chance Jigsaw sped to the front from gate 11 of 14, withstood pressure to his outside from $6.50 shot Arkansaw Kid (Harry Angel), and powered home in the straight to score by 0.75 lengths.
Team Hayes’s Arkansaw Kid took second, 1.25 lengths ahead of Zou Sensation (Zoustar), trained by Leon and Troy Corstens and Will Larkin, also at $6.50. The $3.60 favourite Hedged (Capitalist) over-raced and weakened to finish seventh.
For winning trainer Cindy Alderson, Jigsaw’s effort - racing for slot holders the Moonee Valley Racing Club - stood as a triumph on a huge day for her family.
Four hours earlier had come the running of the inaugural race named after her retired trainer father Colin Alderson - not only a Group 1-winning conditioner but a man described as a Cranbourne “visionary” whose work behind the scenes helped lead to the building of the modern state-of-the-art training facility at the track.
With her father and former training partner in the stands, Cindy Alderson was overjoyed after Jigsaw continued a remarkable campaign with his Meteorite victory, the $455,000 first prize taking his earnings past $1.8 million.
“I can’t really believe it to be honest,” she told Racing.com.
“Especially with everybody around me today. My dad’s here, my mum, my sister, her children - it’s a real family affair. Logan’s like family to me, he’s been with us all along, and all my staff are like family, so it’s a really special moment.”
Jigsaw - bred by Alderson’s mother Lynne - had shaped as something potentially special when he won nine of his first 21 starts. That included four in a row: the Apache Cat Classic (1000m) on Cranbourne Cup day in 2022, Listed sprints at Caulfield and Sandown, and Moonee Valley’s Australia Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m).
But after adding Mornington’s Hareeba Stakes (Listed, 1200m) in April 2023, the gelding appeared to lose his way, with 12 starts going by over two years capped only by just two third placings.
However, from the second start of this campaign, all that has changed.
Jigsaw scored his second Apache Cat Classic victory - as an $11 longshot in a field of seven. He then matched his finest black type success by taking Moonee Valley’s McEwen Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m), this time at $19, and showed those were no flukes with his Meteorite win on Saturday.
“It’s not really anything I can put my finger on except for he did have a lovely spell and I think that really got him back in great shape,” Alderson said when asked to explain the horse’s improvement.
“He’s just enjoying himself. He’s got his confidence right up. He and Logan are a new combination and it’s just absolutely amazing. It’s such a thrill.”
Bates has been aboard throughout this campaign, though unable to apply his two-kilogram claim in all three wins.
“For a boy who’s got a claim still to be able to ride a race like that, when he’s going to be the hunted leading like that - each time someone different has a go at him he handles it, and the horse handles it, and he just knows him so well,” Alderson said.
Alderson is unlikely to be tempted to now run Jigsaw in Southside Racing’s other $1 million slot race, the Supernova (1400m) at Pakenham on December 13, saying “we’ll just stay in our wheelhouse”. Jigsaw has raced five times beyond 1200 metres, failing to make the frame on each occasion.
“He holds an unbelievable gallop around a corner and that’s where he breaks them open
Bates paid tribute to Alderson and her staff for how the revitalised Jigsaw has performed this campaign.
“He’s just gone from strength to strength this prep,” the apprentice said.
“All credit goes to Cindy and the staff. They’ve done an amazing job to give him that time to get over what he was doing last prep, to bring him back and have the confidence to keep him going.
“He was made to work early today, but I felt we still got it [the lead] soft enough. He holds an unbelievable gallop around a corner and that’s where he breaks them open.
“To the horse’s credit he just keeps digging and digging with that one charge. He pricked his ears coming home. He was pretty happy with it.”
Jigsaw - and as of Saturday also Sabaj - are among three stakes winners for Manhattan Rain this season, the other being mare New York Lustre, who took the Begonia Belle Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m) at Flemington on Derby day.
The 19-year-old stallion now has 21 stakes winners from 453 runners worldwide at 4.6 per cent, including three elite-level victors in Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) queen She Will Reign, Australasian Oaks (Gr 1, 2000m) heroine Benagil, and South African star Whisky Baron.
Manhattan Rain is currently standing for $6,050 at Geisel Park, where he’s covered 136 mares in the past three seasons since moving to WA
Five-time stakes winner Jigsaw is the third of four named foals for New Zealand-bred mare Demandz (Lonhro), a city winner on both sides of the Tasman, who was trained in Australia in partnership by Colin and Cindy Alderson.
Demandz’s second foal Queen Adele (Adelaide) was Listed placed, also for Cindy Alderson.
Cindy
and mother Lynne now have Demandz’s yearling filly by Street Boss (Street Cry), and her filly foal
by Cylinder (Exceed And Excel).
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