It is an early race on the card, and a pretty unassuming Open Handicap at that, but there is no doubt that the performance of the highly rated Go Wandji in that 1350m contest will be the main focus of attention at Doomben on Saturday.
A winner of eight of his eleven career starts … five of those coming in his last six outings … it is not only Go Wandji’s strike rate that seen him gain a huge following, but it is the manner in which most of his victories have been achieved that has set him up as something special.
His acceleration when called upon has been nothing short of stunning … an attribute that had his regular jockey Larry Cassidy mentioning Go Wandji in the same sentence as the mighty Winx when he told Newscorp, “There are only two other horses that I have ridden that have had that acceleration – one of them is Winx and the other is Unwordly (a Group 1 winner).
“That doesn’t mean he is as good as they are.,” continued Cassidy. “It means I know he is an exceptional horse.”
On Saturday, Go Wandji will step into Open company for the first time … taking another step in the slow but steady approach that has personified the path trainer Tom Dougall has followed with the five-year-old son of Wandjina.
If nothing else, Go Wandji will certainly appreciate the big drop in weight (from 60kg that he carried last time in a BM78 Handicap to Saturday’s race weight of 54kg) and Cassidy, who has taken up a special diet in recent times, has put in some hard yards himself to ensure he stays on Go Wandji at that weight, understandably given his glowing comments about the horse
While Go Wandji has only raced up to 1200m in his four most recent starts, he already has a win over the Doomben 1350m to his credit … and, in fact has won up to 1400m … so there will be no problem with the distance.
If there is any front-runner bias at Doomben on Saturday, that could slightly complicate his task, but on all of the evidence available, if Go Wandji is ‘on song’ and ready to unleash that ‘exceptional’ acceleration, it is going to take a very good effort from one of his seven rivals to hold him out.
Go Wandji is currently quoted at the very restrictive price of $1.50 with only one other runner, Snowzone ($5.50), being quoted at less than double figure odds at Ladbrokes.
