Evergreen sprinter Jigsaw has taken Cindy Alderson on an amazing journey.
A talented two and three-year-old, Jigsaw lost his way through the middle stages of his career but has turned it full circle and is now a two-time Group 1 winner.
Taken across to New Zealand to land the Railway Stakes at Ellerslie in January to give Alderson and apprentice jockey Logan Bates their first Group 1 victories, Jigsaw stretched his winning sequence to six with victory in the Group 1 William Reid Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield on Saturday.
Backing up a week after scoring at Caulfield over the same trip as the William Reid Stakes, Jigsaw ($5.50) led throughout in scoring a long-neck win over Angel Capital ($8.50) with Devil Night ($81) a short-half-head away third.
Ironically, Jigsaw ran the 1200m journey in 1.08.83, the same time he recorded in his victory last week.
Alderson keeps thinking the amazing run of success will end at some time.
“But he’s not giving me any indications it’s going to stop,” Alderson said.
“He’s just run exactly the same time as he ran last week, so he answered the back-up.
“It’s amazing for a small stable like ours to have the opportunity to have a horse like this at this stage of my career.”
Jigsaw was one of eight Group 1 winners in Saturday’s race and drew the outside gate.
In discussions with Bates about Saturday’s race, they were more worried about the strength of Saturday’s field rather than drawing the extreme outside barrier.
“We were never too concerned about him drawing a wide gate, especially with the start being in a straight line,” Alderson said.
“He was able to control the race. He got an absolute flyer of a start and I thought Tropicus would go up and take us on, but they didn’t.
“Charm Stone gave him a run on the corner, but he kept fighting all the way to the line.”
After a seven-run campaign, stretching back to September that has netted six wins, Alderson said she was unsure how much longer Jigsaw could keep going this preparation.
“I keep taking it one day at a time,” Alderson said.
“I’ve never backed him up, so that could be the end of the preparation as he’s been in work for a long time, but he’ll tell me.
“I know him that well. He won’t do much for the following week and then he’ll let us know.
“Looking at him out there, he’s never looked better in his life.”
