Having claimed his first stakes race win in the Victoria Handicap at Caulfield, jockey Clayton Douglas might not have to wait long for another.
Douglas won Saturday’s Group Three Victoria Handicap on the Shane Nichols-trained Streets Of Avalon and could double his stakes race tally at Flemington on Thursday when he rides unbeaten colt Super Seth in the Listed Anzac Day Stakes (1400m).
Douglas, 24, rode the highly promising Anthony Freedman-trained Super Seth to an impressive win at Caulfield in the two-year-old colt’s second start on April 13.
On that occasion the colt came from back in the field to sweep past his rivals in the straight over 1200m and he will step up to 1400m on Thursday.
“Clayton is going to retain the ride,” Freedman’s racing manager Brad Taylor said.
“He’s riding well and he does a lot of work for the stable, so we’ve got no hesitation putting him on.”
Super Seth’s Caulfield win came after he won a maiden at Ballarat by six lengths on debut last month.
:He has come through the Caulfield run well,” Taylor said.
“He will be suited probably to the 1400 metres and by a big track like Flemington.
“Everything is spot-on. He had a nice gallop on Saturday morning and worked well.”
Connections are yet to decide whether the colt progresses to Queensland this campaign or heads straight to the paddock with the 2019 Caulfield Guineas a logical spring target.
Winners of the Anzac Day Stakes in the past six years include subsequent Group One winners Long John (2013) and Merchant Navy (2017) while last year’s winner Vassilator went on to finish second to The Autumn Sun in this season’s Caulfield Guineas.
The Freedman stable’s star sprinter Santa Ana Lane is scheduled to fly to Hong Kong on Monday night ahead of next Sunday’s Group One Chairman’s Sprint Prize (1200m) at Sha Tin, with Hugh Bowman to ride, replacing the suspended Mark Zahra.
Taylor said Santa Ana Lane had taken some improvement out of his dominant TJ Smith Stakes win second-up on April 6 at Randwick.
“He should be peaking third-up,” Taylor said.
“I know he was pretty dominant the other day but the track rider who rides him all the time is very happy with his work.
“As long as he travels well he will be pretty hard to beat.”
