Australian Racing's Hall of Fame trainer Gai Waterhouse reached another
career milestone at Eagle Farm on Saturday,
winning her 150th Group 1 race when taking the
Stradbroke Handicap.
Alligator Blood, who is trained by Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, successfully returned from kissing spine surgery to win the
$2 million, 1400-metre race.
ALLIGATOR BLOOD & TIM CLARK
Ridden by Tim Clark, Alligator Blood ($11) finished powerfully down the centre of the straight to defeat Private Eye ($17) by a length, with Rothfire ($11) finishing third, a further 1.75 lengths away.
Stable representative
Neil Paine said.
"Incredible for Gai and Adrian - 150 Group 1s for Gai now, Adrian and Gai round about 16 Group 1s,"
"Gai's first Stradbroke (winner) and Alligator Blood back to his best."
Winning rider Clark has combined for numerous Gr1 successes with Waterhouse.
"It's great to ride another Group 1 winner for Gai and Adrian, I'm sure they'd be stoked," Clark said.
Gai Waterhouse, who trains in partnership with Adrian Bott, was on the other side of the world as
Gai is currently in England as also is Adrian Bott, ahead of the Royal Ascot meeting.
Drawn wide in the Group 1 contest,
Alligator Blood showed his sprinting prowess in the closing stages of the race when asked to make his move.
The winning jockey admitted that everything went to plan throughout the course of the race, and he was satisfied with his willing partner’s effort in the latter stages.
“He began well but as expected there was a fair bit of tempo and not only did I not have the horse to be in that speed battle, I knew if I attempted to be with them I’d have nothing left at the end,” Clark explained after his Group 1 victory.
This was
Alligator Blood’s second Group 1 victory, having won the Australian Guineas in his three-year-old season. Alligator Blood cost AUD$55,000 when sold by Baramul Stud at the 2018 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale and has now won in excess of AUD$2.79 million in win and place prizemoney.
She might have been in London, but racing's first lady Gai Waterhouse has hailed Alligator Blood's emotional comeback Stradbroke Handicap win as
one of her finest moments in the sport.
Waterhouse has done it all, but the Stradbroke had long eluded her illustrious training career, until now, turning around a horse that was seemingly in racing oblivion.
Alligator Blood is
banned from New South Wales, diagnosed with a debilitating kissing spine condition, he was also
stripped of his Magic Millions 3YO Guineas victory and has had more
stable changes in a year than most have in a lifetime – Alligator Blood is never far from the headlines.
To top it off, the racing gods gave him barrier 21, but Alligator Blood overcame all of it to cap off one of the most memorable Stradbrokes in history.
Arriving to Waterhouse and Bott, as
“damaged goods,” the master mentors pulled off a training masterpiece to snare Queensland racing's greatest prize.
"I am so thrilled, I honestly I am, it is right up there," Gai Waterhouse said from London.
"It is a huge thrill, I have never won a Stradbroke.
"I was particularly thrilled because this is a horse Adrian has really taken total and personal responsibility for, he has basically trained Alligator Blood.
"That's why I am so proud of the win, this horse came to us as fruit out of season, it has been a long time getting him to the track because different things have held him up.
"It was only his second start back and he was just too strong."
After a disappointing summer campaign, Alligator Blood's best years looked behind him, but
Waterhouse and Bott were able to weave their magic just in time for a timed-to-the-minute winter campaign.
ADRIAN BOTT & GAI WATERHOUSE have achieved 16 Gr1 Wins in partnership
"I think you have to have horses happy, people don't realise that," Waterhouse said.
"If you have a happy horse with what they are doing, you can grab the stars.
"I have found that in the decades of my training career, if you can have a horse enjoying what they are doing, they will do it very enthusiastically.
"That is what we were able to do with Alligator Blood, he is really enjoying life."
Waterhouse hailed jockey Tim Clark's slashing ride as
"perfect", taking luck out of the equation and putting the $11 chance right in the race from the carpark barrier.
"Tim Clark rode him exactly how we like our horses ridden, he had the outside draw, lots of people don't like them but I am never concerned about an outside draw," she said.
"As has been well documented over the last year or two, the horse has had problems but Gai and Adrian, the staff back at Randwick and also in Brisbane, have worked overtime to get this horse right," Tulloch Lodge stable representative
Neil Paine said.
"We're just rapt that we've got him and he's come back to his best.
"It's just incredible Gai and Adrian could get him back to where he is."
Tim Clark added: “
On straightening, it was a matter of being patient, letting him build through his gears and I thought all he has to do is find off the bridle and he showed a great turn of foot.
"I haven't had a lot to do with the horse's career but that was a pretty special performance.
"It's great to ride another Group 1 winner for Gai and Adrian, Gai's 150th, her first Stradbroke and I'm sure they'd be stoked."
NEIL PAINE & TIM CLARK
Alligator Blood was the 16th Gr1 Win for the Waterhouse and Bott partnership adding to the 134 Waterhouse captured as a trainer in her own right.
The Team at Dynamic Syndications are the training partnership's PRIMARY SYNDICATORS.
Visit our website to see what is available with GAI & ADRIAN
