Trainer Marc Conners believes the time is right for progressive gelding Willaidow to tackle some bigger targets, hoping to win his way into the Group 1 Doncaster Mile through the Group 2 Ajax Stakes (1500m) at Rosehill on Saturday.
The sparingly raced six-year-old gelding has only had eighteen starts to his name but has continued to improve, winning the Group 3 Southern Cross Stakes (1200m) first up this campaign, something that didn’t shock Conners.
“We were confident the horse had been going very well,” Conners said.
“That was a logical next step. On the day, everything went to plan, and then second up, probably just a bit too fresh. He’s come on nicely since then.”
Willaidow finished fifth, beaten 1.6 lengths in the Group 3 Liverpool City Cup (1300m) last start but was four weeks between runs on that occasion and Conners believes he’ll improve again on a quicker turnaround.
“He’s probably a little bit a touch too fresh second-up. Hadn’t run for four weeks. He got fairly worked up before the race. That run tightened him up, he goes into this race third-up and we’re really happy with him,” Conners said.
By Shamus Award, Willaidow has never raced past 1400m and has shown speed to lead races over shorter distances, but Conners is confident he’s ready to try the gelding over a bit more ground with the Doncaster in mind.
“We’ve been sort of working towards getting to there, so hopefully it’ll work on Saturday… I suppose it (Doncaster) has been a long-term goal, he’ll want to win impressively Saturday, I think, to take those sort of horses on,” Conners said.
“It’s going to be a pretty hot race this year, I think. Everybody seems to be heading there. So, you know, he has to, he has to be impressive and he has to run that strong 1500 (metres) out to warrant going to the mile.”
“His last preparation, the more he raced, the better he got. He was always sort of a horse that people thought he was probably used to go mad, used to go really fast. But in the last probably six runs, he’s settled down fantastic.”
“He’s really adapting to racing better now than he ever has, and just showing us the signs that now he can race up on the speed in a fastly run race.”
Zac Lloyd has been booked to ride Willaidow at 54kg on Saturday, who is an $8 chance in all-in betting.
