Fresh Watchme Win ready to strike in Monash

Morphettville trainer Andrew Gluyas is looking forward to Saturday’s John Monash Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m), with stable stalwart Watchme Win (Harry Angel) out to further enhance his fine first-up record in the Caulfield feature. 

The rising six-year-old has been in good form of late – last seen producing a sound effort in May’s Goodwood (Gr 1, 1200m) when eighth, beaten just 1.7 lengths behind winner Desert Lightning (Pride Of Dubai). 

Prior to that, he was a close runner-up in three consecutive stakes races at his home track, the latest a 0.9-length defeat to subsequent Goodwood placegetter Grand Larceny (Zoustar) in this year’s John Hawkes Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m), having won the Group 3 contest in 2025. 

A minor foot abscess ruled the gelding out of an intended run in the Bel Esprit Stakes (Listed, 1100m) at Caulfield on May 30, but Gluyas remains confident that hiccup hasn’t hindered his progress as he bids for a fourth win in five fresh-up starts. 

“I’m excited for him going into it, I’ve been pleased with his work,” Gluyas told ANZ News.

“He’s freshened up since the Goodwood – he was to run in the Bel Esprit but things didn’t quite work out for him up there, so we just had to regroup from that weekend and I think we’ve done that.”

The trainer was encouraged by Watchme Win’s performance in Adelaide’s premier sprint nine weeks ago, despite circumstances not unfolding as he had hoped. 

“[The Goodwood] was a nice run – he didn’t quite get the cover I was hoping for that day, he was just that bit exposed in running and did the work for the eventual winner and the second,” Gluyas said. 

“They both came off his back. But I thought it was an okay run in that company, he gave us a good sight for a while and wasn’t beaten too far.”

While acknowledging weight-for-age conditions present another challenge, Gluyas believes Saturday’s contest represents a suitable opportunity for the honest sprinter to add a third stakes success to his resume and the market agrees, rating him the $6 favourite on Thursday. 

“He’s a very honest gelding,” Gluyas said. “He’s always there or thereabouts. Saturday is a WFA race, which you’d think he’s not quite a WFA sprinter, but he’s not far off it. In an off-peak scenario, that might suit him.” 

Caulfield was rated a Soft 7 on Thursday, and while five of the son of Harry Angel’s (Dark Angel) six victories have come on good ground – including his two stakes wins – his trainer believes conditions are unlikely to be of concern provided he is afforded the right run in transit. 

“I think he races well on any track really,” Gluyas said. “His form on a good track is probably best, while his soft track form is honest. He probably needs to be not too far away from the action so we’d like for him to be in a midfield position, and that ought to give him every chance.”

Watchme Win has been a stable favourite throughout his career, overcoming an early setback that threatened to derail his racing career before developing into one of South Australia’s most consistent sprinters.

He lived up to his name on debut, scoring at Murray Bridge over 1000 metres as a July three-year-old in 2024. He won twice more up to Benchmark 84 grade that year before returning in the Autumn to land the John Hawkes (Gr 3 , 1100m) and place seventh in his first attempt at The Goodwood (Gr 1, 1200m). 

His latest win came at Morphettville last September in the W H Wylie Handicap (Listed, 1100m), with a fourth in Flemington’s Rising Fast Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) another highlight of the Spring. 

“He’s been a dream,” Gluyas said. “He had a pretty catastrophic injury as a young horse so that put a stop to his juvenile racing. We only started to get him going at the back-end of his three-year-old season.

“He’s definitely a character – a bit of a bull style of horse – but everything we’ve asked him to do once he was healthy has been great. He’s been interesting – he keeps us on our toes, no doubt about that, but he’s very trainable.”

Purchased by Leon Macdonald and Gluyas for $160,000 out of Noorlim Park (as agent for Mill Park) at the 2022 Inglis Premier Yearling Sale, Watchme Win has comfortably repaid that investment with earnings exceeding $510,000.

The gelding is one of two winners from the winning Sepoy (Elusive Quality) mare Watchmespin, whose other runner is Bjorn Baker’s Listed placegetter Point And Shoot (Blue Point). Watchmespin’s latest foal, a filly by Street Boss (Street Cry), sold to Baker for $260,000 at this year’s Inglis Premier Yearling Sale.

Like fellow Mill Park graduate Angel Capital (Harry Angel), Watchme Win was bred by Harry Perks and is one of 22 stakes winners for Darley’s Harry Angel, led by Group 1 winners Tom Kitten, War Machine and Private Harry. 

Gluyas said the colt’s physique had caught the stable’s attention from an early stage despite Harry Angel still being an unproven sire at the time.

“We liked that he came from Mill Park so we had a connection with him pre-sale,” Gluyas said. “At that stage, we were unsure about the Harry Angels, but he definitely stood out, he had a lot of strength about him.”

Gluyas is keeping an open mind beyond Saturday, with Watchme Win’s performance likely to shape his spring campaign.

“We’re just going to get through the weekend and see where his rating ends up,” he said. 

“Then we will regroup. He’s got a bit of a break before we move on to the next thing, there is no hard plan but it will definitely feature some nice-level sprinting. Whether that’s top-level sprinting, that’s what we’ve got to work out, but we’re just looking forward to Saturday with him.”

Watchme Win has played a leading role in another successful campaign for French Cotton Lodge, with the stable posting a 15.2 per cent strike rate and four stakes victories during the 2025-26 season. Adelaide Guineas (Listed, 1600m) winner Tiptop Tori (Grunt), another Harry Perks-bred, has also contributed to that tally.

“We’ve had a good season – a good couple of seasons,” Gluyas said. “We’re quite pleased with where it’s at and our achievements. Strike rates are always interesting just in regard to how that comes together with each particular stable, but for us we’ve had a healthy strike-rate throughout the season and have won our small share of stakes races. 

“We’ve had some good success with our three-year-olds and have had higher-rated horses work their way towards those ratings where it gets a little harder to win, but when they get into the winner’s circle it’s always in nice races, which is great.”