Plagiarism broke his maiden in style when he ran his rivals ragged to win the Group 3 $250,000 Up And Coming Stakes (1300m) at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday.
The win didn’t surprise co-trainer Adrian Bott, who has always felt Plagiarism had the ability, but having the horse gelded after his two-year-old campaign might prove the making of him.
“We have had him in all the biggest races so far, we haven’t run him in maidens, and that was his first win today,” Bott said.
“Last preparation we chased the Golden Slipper dream but it just wasn’t happening for him.
“I feel having the horse gelded has helped him, definitely. He was impressive today.”
Plagiarism ($8) led throughout under Regan Bayliss and was never seriously challenged to score by nearly a length from the fast-finishing Genesis Runner ($4.40), with Hostwin King ($17) a half-length away third.
The heavily backed favourite Savagram ($2.30), a stablemate of the winner, was doing his best work on the line to finish fourth.
Bayliss told Racing And Sports that he was confident a long way from home because Plagiarism was travelling so well.
“He is a horse that can roll along at a nice speed and quicken off that which is a really good attribute to have,” Bayliss said.
“When he got there so easily and got into a great rhythm I thought it was going to take a good one to run him down. He was just too good.
“He keeps improving, this horse and that was a really good confidence-boosting win. He’s still only lightly raced and is on the way up.”
Bott, who trains in partnership with Hall of Famer Gai Waterhouse, said they had originally thought of taking Plagiarism to races like the Tapp-Craig and Callander-Presnell, but they will revisit those plans after his dashing Up And Coming win.
“We will look at the Golden Rose,” Bott said. “There is probably a sweet spot getting out to 1400m for this horse.
“I thought he might have been a step below the top three-year-olds but he was very impressive today.
“He is a horse that has always shown natural speed and brilliance. We wanted to see him utilise that and he executed that perfectly.
“It was a great effort by him first-up with a big weight and he has obviously taken improvement from the run. We will see how he comes through this and look to where we aim up but everything is on the table at present.”
Bott also felt there was plenty of merit in the run of Savagram.
“I thought he was excellent,” Bott said.
“It was his second career start and that was probably what showed today.
“When the speed increased from the 600m he just wanted to lay out slightly under pressure.
“But I thought he knuckled down really well and was excellent through the line.
“He is going to keep improving as he gets up over further and I thought it was a very good run for where he is at in his career.”
The Waterhouse-Bott stable also had the filly Savvy Diamond in the field and she struck trouble early, got back to last before eventually finishing eighth.
