Watch Me Rock leads home fine Railway Stakes quinella for Team Williams
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.
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.”
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).