He cost $7000 and has one leg held together by pins, but it is Willaidow’s tough-as-nails demeanour on the racetrack that has trainer Marc Conners dreaming big.
The six-year-old’s courage was again to the fore at Rosehill on Saturday when he dug deep to fend off all challengers in Saturday’s Group Three Southern Cross Stakes (1200m), his first black-type win spearing his prizemoney earnings to more than $580,000.
The first-up victory continues Willaidow’s remarkable journey after Conners plucked him from an online dispersal sale sight unseen.
“He was an untried three-year-old gelding who had never been broken in so nobody had had their hands on him,” Conners recalled.
“He was by Shamus Award so a little bit of pedigree.
“I have done it half a dozen times since and they’ve done nothing. That’s what this game is about. There are no rules.”
While Willaidow was a bargain buy, his career was almost over before it truly began.
After posting his second win at Nowra at start number six, he broke his leg. And Conners’ immediate reaction?
“Lucky he won because it’s a $10,000 operation,” he quipped.
“He’s got three pins in his leg.
“It was a cannon bone. They say it heals very well and it’s highly successful.”
The procedure has proven just that for Willaidow, who has so far gone on to win another six races and counting.
Conners hasn’t set a concrete program for his stable star this autumn but admits he would love to get the horse to a race like the Doncaster Mile.
“There is no set plan. There are plenty of options for him. We will take our time, every two or three weeks there is a race and I think he will be better when he gets to 1400 and 1500,” Conners said.
“I’d love to get him to the Doncaster but there are other options. He loves the wet tracks and if it happens to rain in Melbourne, he might go to Melbourne.”
Conners said Willaidow was such a slouch at home he was difficult to get a gauge on and his best asset was his propensity for a scrap.
“He’s a hard horse to get a line on because he’s a terrible trackworker, he falls-in in his trials, he sweats up badly before a race, he gets around like a crab. But he gets out there race day and just finds another gear,” Conners said.
“He wants a fight. The closer they get to him, the harder he fights.”
With regular jockey James Mcdonald unable to make Willaidow’s 54kg weight, Tyler Schiller picked up the ride and admitted to being pleasantly surprised by how well he rallied under pressure.
“I thought he was all-out the last 100 but he just kept finding. He’s so tough,” Schiller said.
“The lightweight, I think it helped, but he has beaten some nice horse. Some in-form horses.”
Willaidow’s ($4.20) scored by a head over Iowna Merc ($8) with Brudenell ($6.50) another three-quarters of a length away third.
