All Too Hard showed just why he’s considered one of the brightest prospects in Australian racing with another dominant Group One performance at Caulfield on Saturday.
A week after his champion half-sister Black Caviar took her record to 23 from 23, All Too Hard left the older horses in his wake as he raced to the third Group One win of his career with the promise of more to come.
All Too Hard winning the Group 1 Futurity Stakes - Photo by Bruno Cannatelli
He might only have to wait another week to add his fourth Group One.
Starting favourite, All Too Hard ($1.90) opened up over the final 200 metres in the Futurity Stakes (1400m) and put 3-1/4 lengths on proven Group One winner Glass Harmonium ($18) with last year’s winner King Mufhasa ($5.50) half a neck away third.
The valuable colt’s impressive display also sent a warning ahead of next Saturday’s Group One Australian Guineas (1600m) where he is “ninety-nine per cent sure” to back up.
For co-trainer Wayne Hawkes, the Futurity was easy to watch.
“When he was coming to the corner with a lapful of horse you knew they were in trouble,” Hawkes said.
The Hawkes Racing team decided on a weight-for-age campaign in Melbourne for the star colt in the early part of the autumn and his Futurity success backed up his win two weeks earlier in the Group One C F Orr Stakes.
He joined champion Manikato as the only horse to win the Caulfield Guineas in the spring and then claim the Orr Stakes-Futurity double in the autumn.
Hawkes said the colt was working his way into the elite class.
“He’s not the elite yet but he’s certainly heading towards it, that’s for sure and certain,” Hawkes said.
“We’re pretty level-headed and let the horse do the talking. But his form is pretty good. You can’t do much more than he’s doing at the moment.”
Jockey Dwayne Dunn positioned All Too Hard in a lovely spot, midfield and one off the fence, and when he let down in the straight the result was beyond doubt.
It brought up a winning treble on the program for Dunn, continuing a love-affair with Blue Diamond Stakes day having won Victoria’s premier juvenile race at the corresponding meeting four times.
Melbourne Cup winner Green Moon finished fourth.
