"He’ll win, and the most important thing is he’ll be better odds,” is how an extremely confident
Gai Waterhouse instantly brushed off the disappointment of Saturday’s Golden Slipper favourite
Vancouver drawing barrier 18.
"Barriers - you can’t do anything about them. It’s like having mum or
dad, you can’t say I want to change my parents, you’re stuck with them,”
Gai said at Tuesday morning’s barrier draw.
Vancouver
Vancouver has been all the rage with punters after his 3-1/4 length victory in the Todman Stakes (1200m) at Randwick on March 7.
That win left him undefeated from three starts, and his time of 1:08.83 had most
time analysts declaring him unbeatable in the world’s richest two-year-old race.
Sportsbet had
Vancouver the son of Medaglia D’Oro, the clear-cut $2.50 favourite prior to the barrier draw, but have since eased him slightly to $2.80.
Assuming the emergencies don’t get a start, Vancouver will jump from barrier 15. Star Watch for Gai's late father Tommy Smith in 1988 tasted success from barrier 15 in the Golden Slipper.
"He (Vancouver) can do anything, he can go forward, he can go back. Tommy’s (Berry) won a Golden Slipper, he can use his brains from the outside,” Gai said.
Gai Waterhouse has three runners in this year’s edition. Her two fillies
English (barrier six) and
Speak Fondly (barrier 10) have fared much better with the draw.
If Gai, already a five-time Golden Slipper winner, wins this year, she will equal the all-time win record held by her legendary father.
"You dream about things like that. I love this race,” Gai said.
"I think this is the most exciting race in the world, not just in Australia. It symbolises everything that we stand for which is all about vitality and youth.
"This is the stallion making race of Australia, of the world.”
Gai has held the belief
VANCOUVER has always shown her that he was a better 2yo than her previous supercharged colts
DANCE HERO and PIERRO. She simply cannot contemplate any thought that
VANCOUVER won’t win.
Gai has held this belief for a while. So much so, when we went to the Melbourne Yearling Sales, Gai was equally as keen as we were to buy lot 578 a
stunning filly by the MEDAGLIA D’ORO – the Champion Sire of her superb Colt, out of the Group 2 Winning mare TRICK OF LIGHT.
OUR FILLY - Medaglia D'oro x Trick Of Light
For a filly, this is a magnificent pedigree. She’s a daughter of a Gr2 Winner directly descending from Champion broodmare MONROE (3rd Dam).
Medaglia D'oro is a Champion Sire with incredible statistics:
He has had 684 of his progeny to race:
416 Winners (60.8s%)
652 Earned Prizemoney (95.32%)
67 Stakes Winners including 12 Gr1 Winners (9.8%)
44 Stakes Placed (16.2%) Runners:Black Type Performers
He is the Sire of 2009 USA Horse of the Year - wonderful filly RACHEL ALEXANDRA and of course - VANCOUVER
His oldest Australian Progeny are just 3yo's and include 27 individual winners including stakes Winners VANCOUVER, JAVA and NOSTRADAMUS.
Will VANCOUVER become Medaglia D'oro's lucky 13th Group 1 Winner ? Gai is convinced he will be !
Whilst this is significant on its own, the
Wow Factor is both VANCOUVER and OUR FILLY are bred on the same cross.
They are both by MEDAGLIA D’ORO out of a DANEHILL Line Broodmares.
Gai is so devoted to her colt and so adamant that this cross will continue to produce champion racehorses, that thinking ahead she believed she had the 2015 Golden Slipper Winner already in the stables at Tulloch Lodge and
felt this filly gave her a chance for history to repeat in 2016.
She wanted to have a class filly bred the exact same way that has extremely similar looks, markings and conformation.
This is a serious, high quality filly, with superb residual value upon racetrack retirement. Most importantly, she has the looks to match the page and the cross works.
