High-profile import Vauban has made a statement in his first start for the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott stable with victory in the Group 3 Sky High Stakes at Rosehill.
Vauban has raced in the past two Melbourne Cups when prepared by Irish trainer Willie Mullins, starting favourite in 2023 and among the favourites last year but finished unplaced on both occasions.
The gelding was secured by syndicator Australian Bloodstock in conjunction with the Waterhouse and Bott stable after last year’s Cup and remained in Australia, with the seven-year-old stepping out on Saturday for his new stable and showing he’ll be a force to be reckoned with in the Group 1 Tancred Stakes later this month.
Despite sweating up noticeably in hot conditions and getting excitable in the mounting yard, Vauban ($9) settled at the back of the small field under jockey Tim Clark and powered home out wide to defeat Group 1 winner Arapaho ($4.60) by a half-head.
The $1.75 favourite Lindermann was another 1-1/4-lengths away third.
Bott said Vauban was loaded with talent and Saturday’s performance was encouraging moving forward.
“Obviously he’s got a few little quirks that we’re going to work through and I think he’s just going to continue to adapt,” Bott said.
“But obviously he’s an older horse now, he’s a bit set in his ways also, so we don’t want to change too much.
“He’s obviously got plenty of talent there and that was a big win today, to come off a relatively slow tempo from back there.
“I guess maybe the track suited him today, but I thought over the 2000 metres he may have been a bit vulnerable. It sets him up going forward to his main target next start.”
Bott was pleased to see Vauban have the sharpness to win over 2000m and is looking forward to seeing him over further again in the weight-for-age Tancred (2400m) in two weeks, with the option of progressing to a Sydney Cup (3200m) later in the autumn as well.
“I wasn’t sure how sharp we could get him and it’s hard to gauge over the shorter trials here,” Bott said.
“He wouldn’t have run over those shorter distances in his career. It’s not until you can see them under race day pressure and these right conditions that you get a true guide, and I was really impressed by that today.”
Clark said that although Vauban used plenty of energy pre-race, his ability to relax in the run allowed him to conserve enough to be able to finish strongly and surge to victory.
“That was some win,” Clark said.
“Obviously he’s a hugely talented horse that has a few quirks. They’ve worked so hard with him behind the scenes to keep him as relaxed as possible. Although we didn’t quite see him execute that in the yard, that’s probably just him a little bit.
“We’ve got to get used to that but on the track, for him to do what he just did, what a remarkable win and a fantastic training effort by Gai and Adrian.”
Vauban was the $3.50 equal betting site favourite with Dubai Honour for the Tancred after his victory in the Sky High while he’s also early favourite for this year’s Melbourne Cup.
