Fresh from their Underwood Stakes win with Alligator Blood, Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott will chase further Victorian Group 1 success in this Saturday’s Turnbull Stakes with Knights Order.
The imported stayer will press his Caulfield Cup claims in the 2000-metre set-weights-and-penalties event at Flemington.
The Turnbull Stakes will be Knights Order’s third start for the campaign, following a first-up win in the Group 2 Chelmsford Stakes (1600m) and a Group 3 Kingston Town Stakes (2000m) third placing, and Bott said it was a suitable Caulfield Cup lead-up.
“The first-up run was really good and it was a solid performance there second up over 2000 (metres),” he said.
“Remaining at the 2000 is short of his best, but we’re potentially looking at the Caulfield Cup with him so it’s a nice lead-in for him there,” he said.
A Northern Hemisphere-bred son of So You Think, Knights Order will be looking for a fifth Cup win in Australia if he makes it to the Caulfield Cup (2400m) on October 15.
His first two wins in Australia came in the 2020 City Tattersalls Club Cup and 2021 Winter Cup, both 2400m Listed races in Sydney, before a breakthrough Group 2 win in last year’s Brisbane Cup (3200m).
Earlier this year he added the Group 1 Sydney Cup (3200m) to his resume.
The Chelmsford Stakes win was his first below 1990m and while that win, like the Sydney Cup, came on a Heavy 10 track, Bott warned against labelling him a mud-runner.
“He’s versatile on whatever track so don’t read into him just being a heavy-tracker,” Bott said.
“He’s travelled down to Melbourne really well, settled in great and hopefully he can continue to improve on that throughout the preparation.
“It’s taken a while to get to this point, but he’s in career best form and he’s still improving.”
Knights Order is among 27 entries for the 2022 Turnbull Stakes with Duais, Gold Trip, Inspirational Girl, Numerian and Profondo among his potential rivals.
