In one sense, the Cindy Alderson trained Jigsaw is turning back the clock. In another sense, the seven-year-old son of Manhattan Rain is racing in his best form ever. That might sound a touch contradictory, but both observations are true.
You have to credit Alderson for Jigsaw’s current run of form which has him sitting on an unbroken winning sequence of four straight wins, and what an impressive run it has been.
Jigsaw went from the $100 000 Apache Cat Classic win at Cranbourne … to a Group 2 win in the $300 000 McEwen Stakes at Moonee Valley … to a victory in the $1 million Meteorite, back at Cranbourne again … before stepping up brilliantly to claim both his first international victory and his first Group 1 win in NZ $ 600 000 Sistema Railway at Ellerslie.
Those wins all came over the 1200m trip and Jigsaw was ridden by Logan Bates in every one of those victories.
Not surprising then that there has been no tinkering with a proven recipe. When Jigsaw goes out to try and improve his record in the $200 000 Vobis Gold Sprint at Caulfield on Saturday he will, once again race over 1200m and, once again, he will have Bates in the saddle.
The turning back the clock element of the story goes back to a time when Jigsaw ran up another sequence of four straight wins … those wins going all the way back to the period from November 2022 to January 2023 where he won the Apache Cat Classic, the race he would win again three years later … the Listed Doveton Stakes … the Listed Xmas Stakes … before going on to reel in his first Group 2 success in the Australia Stakes at Moonee Valley.
To be putting an even better winning sequence together, in terms of the quality of the races in which he has saluted, as a seven-year-old, is quite remarkable.
Jigsaw, who won on debut on January 7, 2021 and who is still winning five year’s later, has brought in just over $2.1 million in prize-money for his connections via a race record of thirteen wins and five minor placings from thirty-seven starts.
The betting suggests that if Jigsaw is to extend his winning sequence in the Vobis Gold Sprint on Saturday, it is likely he will first have to see off the challenges of the Ben, Will and J D Hayes trained Ndola, who was a last start winner at Flemington when coming back from 1400m to 1200m … and the Charlotte Littlefield trained She’s Bulletproof, who will race second-up after finishing unplaced in the Group 1 Oakleigh Plate.
Jigsaw and Ndola are currently vying for favouritism at $3.20 and $3.30 respectively.
She’s Bulletproof is on offer at $4.20.
No other runner is quoted at odds under $10.
