‘She’ll be very hard to beat’- Waterhouse bullish about Agarwood’s Silver Shadow chances
Trainer Gai Waterhouse says unbeaten filly Agarwood (Wootton Bassett) is evoking memories of one of her very finest females as she prepares to resume with no wet track fears in early season three-year-old fillies’ highlight, the Silver Shadow Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m), at Randwick on Saturday.
Elite racing returns for the first time this Australian season with a quality-packed Winx Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) headed by Horse of the Year shoo-in Via Sistina (Fastnet Rock) alongside eight fellow top-tier winners amid her 11 rivals including Gringotts (Per Incanto), Fangirl (Sebring) and Aeliana (Castelvecchio).
The exciting Autumn Glow (The Autumn Sun) is set to provide another highlight, down to resume in the Toy Show Quality (Gr 3, 1100m) as an odds-on chance seeking a fifth win from as many starts, while a high quality field headlined by seven resuming fillies has been entered for the Silver Shadow.
But of course the meeting is shrouded at least by the prospect of a bottomless heavy track – and at most by the chance that with much further rain, which is forecast, it could be called off altogether.
Provided it goes ahead, Waterhouse has no qualms about the conditions for Agarwood, the latest potential star from Coolmore shuttler Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj), who’ll stand for an Australian record $385,000 (inc GST) this spring.
Bred by Coolmore offshoot Katom from Wootton Bassett’s first southern crop, Agarwood was a $420,000 purchase for Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott and Kestrel Thoroughbreds at Inglis Easter. She’s the third foal of Paulownia (Fastnet Rock), who ran a Group 2 second in New Zealand, and is a sister to Australian Group 1-winning sire Foxwedge and Sydney Listed winner She’s A Fox.
In a delicious piece of timing, 12 days after her purchase, half-sister Lilac (Justify) became a Group winner in Randwick’s James Carr Stakes (Gr 3, 1400m), having won lower level black type last spring in Caulfield’s Jim Moloney Stakes (Listed, 1400m).
Paulownia is due to drop another foal by Justify (Scat Daddy) in the coming days, while Coolmore say she’ll likely return to Wootton Bassett this spring.
Wootton Bassett opened his Australian account with a bang last term as stakes-placed two-year-olds such as Wodeton, State Visit, Gallo Nero and Wiltshire Square helped him finish second on the first-season sires’ table.
Agarwood was not among his first runners to come to hand, having one November trial – for a distant fifth – before being put away for further development.
But she returned with an arresting punch in the late autumn, scoring on debut in a 1000-metre Warwick Farm maiden by 2.55 lengths, and again second-up by 2.26–length in a Randwick two-year-old handicap on May 24, on a heavy 9.
After a brief spell she goes into the Silver Shadow with residual fitness and as a $2.50 favourite following two barrier trial wins – by 5.1 lengths at Warwick Farm and 3.16 lengths at Goulburn, as her stable sought a way around a host of recent Sydney trial wash-outs.
And Waterhouse is confident Agarwood will be extremely hard to beat as she seeks to become Wootton Bassett’s first Australian-born stakes winner on Saturday, when she’ll likely lead from gate six for Tim Clark.
“She’s a very, very good filly,” Waterhouse told ANZ News. “She’s very natural, very talented, she’s done everything right. Her last prep was very impressive, and she’s come back super with her trials – she really toyed with her rivals.
“The Wootton Bassetts did seem to be more autumn-type horses, and this one just needed a bit more time. But I think she’s developed very well and she’ll be very hard to beat on Saturday.”
Waterhouse said she was drawn to Agarwood as a yearling because she “liked what Wootton Bassett was doing in both hemispheres” and because she was a “big, strong filly and I just loved her action”.
Sixteen months later, Agarwood is giving Waterhouse echoes of her former star mare Shamekha (Secret Savings), who won seven stakes races including three at the top level in the 2004 Coolmore Classic (Gr 1, 1500m), and did the 2005 TJ Smith Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) and All-Aged Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) double in the space of a week.
With a versatility that would hold Agarwood in fine stead, Shamekha was also Group 1-placed at 1600 metres and 2000 metres – the latter when an 0.8–length second as the outstanding Special Harmony (Spinning World) won her eighth race in a span of nine in the 2004 Arrowfield Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m).
“Agarwood is reminding me a lot of Shamekha,” Waterhouse said. “She’s very talented, very tenacious, she’s got a lovely action and a great attitude – and that was Shamekha all over.”
Waterhouse confirmed Agarwood would pursue Randwick’s Princess Series, which begins with the Silver Shadow and encompasses the Furious Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) on September 6, the Tea Rose Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m) on September 20, and the Flight Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) on October 4.
And Waterhouse says she and co-trainer Adrian Bott won’t be put off by heavy conditions – an approach that holds across their stable.
“It’s reassuring that she’s won on a heavy 9, because it keeps raining,” she said. “But in any case, it’s good to see these horses go around in the wet. The people who scratch them are mad. It’s so important that they go around and get a feel of it.
“What happens if a Golden Slipper or a Melbourne Cup or an Everest are run on a wet track? You can’t scratch them from those. You’ve just got to cop it on the chin and run with it.
“We don’t pussyfoot around. Our horses are trained to race and be competitive and we get on with the job.”
Meanwhile, Gary Portelli’s Queen Of Clubs (Maurice) has two keen judges in her corner as she kicks off her spring in the Silver Shadow: bookmakers, and jockey James McDonald.
The TAB has installed Queen Of Clubs as favourite for the VRC Oaks (Gr 1, 2500m), such is the regard held for her after one win – at $31 – from four starts.
And McDonald has chased the ride on the filly, partnering her in a recent barrier trial fourth placing at Warwick Farm, and backing up again on Saturday.
Queen Of Clubs was bought from breeders Trilogy via their Blue Gum Farm draft at Magic Millions Gold Coast at the upper end of Portelli’s usual budget for $300,000, with Trilogy staying involved.
She quickly impressed her trainer, earning starts at Sydney’s first official two-year-old barrier trials and Randwick’s Gimcrack Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m). While the distance of the Gimcrack and the 1100 metres of her second start proved too short, Queen Of Clubs caught the eye when resuming in May with a fifth in a Rosehill two-year-old handicap over 1300 metres, on a heavy 9.
She lived up to that when, stepped up to a 1400-metre juvenile handicap at the same track, she led in a field of 12 by 1.16 lengths, at $31.
Bookmakers, like Portelli, see the possibility of longer trips in her future, with the TAB installing her at the top of the VRC Oaks pre-nominations market at $8.
Plus, she’s on the third line of betting for her envisaged rise to the mile in the Flight Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) at $11, alongside Agarwood and behind Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) placegetter Tempted (Street Boss) at $4.
Like Shamekha for Agarwood, Portelli said Queen Of Clubs had the class and attitude that reminded him of another of his recent star fillies.
“She gives me vibes of Fireburn,” he said of his 2022 Slipper and ATC Sires’ Produce (Gr 1, 1400m) heroine. “They’re very similar horses.
“I had Queen Of Clubs in mind as a black–type horse from very early on, and she’s come along super.
“She’s a beautiful filly now. She was always a lovely type – I loved her as a yearling, and paid $300,000 for her, but she’s turned into a beast now. And she’s got a bit of a wrap on herself as well, like Fireburn. You love to see that.”
Like father, like daughter.
Queen Of Clubs is by the horse known as “The Beast from the East” in his racing days – Arrowfield’s Japanese shuttler Maurice (Screen Hero), who won three Grade 1s in his home country and three more in Hong Kong, from 1600 metres to 2000 metres.
The 15-year-old has proven a versatile sire through his ten Australian stakes winners, from 200 runners. His two Australian elite victors range from sprinter Mazu, winner of the Doomben Ten Thousand (Gr 1, 1200m), to Hitotsu, the triple top-tier victor who took two Derbies – and the big ones no less – at Flemington and Randwick, and is now a barnmate of his father at Arrowfield.
Hitotsu, and a liberal dash of French staying blood from the family of Queen Of Clubs’ unraced dam Libre A Vous, gives Portelli hope his filly might be able to match Hitotsu’s 2500-metre Flemington success.
Portelli was pleasantly surprised by Queen Of Clubs’ VRC Oaks favouritism.
“To be honest, I haven’t set a definite plan to even go to the Oaks, but if she takes me that way, then that’s where we’ll go,” he told ANZ News.
“The bookies have clearly seen something they like in her, and as much as I already know she’s got good ability, that’s always reassuring.”
Similarly, Portelli was heartened by McDonald’s pursuit of the ride.
“Obviously James could ride whatever he wants, but his manager asked for the ride in the trial, and J-Mac said she gave him a beautiful feel that day and he thinks she’s a good horse,” he said. “It’s good to get that feedback from the best jockey in Australia.”
While she’s a $12 hope for the Silver Shadow, Portelli feels she’s not without a chance.
Though technically first-up, she only had a fortnight in the paddock after her last start win ten weeks ago.
And while the 1200 metres might be short of her ideal trip, the fact she’s proven she can handle a heavy 9 encourages her trainer she’ll be working home well while others are tiring, particularly those resuming.
“It might feel like a long 1200 metres to a few of them,” Portelli said. “Our filly has a lot of residual fitness, she’s had a lot of work, she handles the wet, and she’s been low flying in trackwork.
“She had a gallop on Tuesday with Encap. Not many match it with him, but she put her head in front of him at the end, which is unusual, and ran 10.5 seconds on the poly for her last 200 at the end of 1000 metres.
“She’s flying, and I think she’s improved a helluva lot from her last campaign.”