A trainer predicting they would train the trifecta in a Stakes race would normally be considered outlandish, but not when it is Gai WaterhouseĀ talking about the Breeders’ Plate.
The Hall of Fame trainer, who prepares her team in partnership with Adrian Bott, has achieved the feat the past two seasons.
Waterhouse and Bott last year produced King KirkĀ to defeat TempestuousĀ and North EnglandĀ in the 1000-metre event, 12 months after EspionageĀ defeated Straight ChargeĀ and Prost.
Waterhouse is expecting a similar result in this Saturday’s $250,000 Group 3 at Randwick, where Tulloch Lodge will be represented by Eviction Notice, I’m Ya Huckleberry and Revengeance.
“I think we’ll trifecta the Breeders’ Plate,” Waterhouse said.
“I think we’ve got a horse that could easily be a Golden Slipper horse and I said that before Pierro won the Golden Slipper.”
Waterhouse famously proclaimed ‘you just saw the Golden Slipper winner’ after Pierro won the 2011 Breeders’ Plate before going on to win the world’s richest juvenile race.
Eviction Notice is the colt Waterhouse considers best-placed to follow in Pierro’s footsteps and provide her with a ninth Golden Slipper victory.
A son of the 2021 Golden Slipper hero Stay Inside and Street Boss mare Euroboss, Eviction Notice was the most decisive of nine juvenile trial winners at Randwick on Monday last week.
The $375,000 Magic Millions Gold Coast yearling won by 7-3/4 lengths in a time of 49.53 seconds.
“He’s a very, very sharp horse,” Waterhouse said of Eviction Notice.
“He does everything right. He won his trial by seven lengths (and) ran super time.”
I’m Ya Huckleberry ran 0.01secs slower than Eviction Notice in his 2-3/4-trial win on the same day, while Revengeance stopped the clock at 50.38secs winning the day’s final trial.
“I’m Ya Huckleberry, he’s a beautiful colt; big and strong, knock you in the nose and go ‘boom’,” Waterhouse said.
“The other horse, Revengeance, has just jumped out of the ground since his trial.
“He had to get at him a little bit to win his trial, but he ran it in very fast time.”
I’m Ya Huckleberry, a $400,000 Gold Coast yearling, is by boom first-season sire Home Affairs, while Revengeance is a son of Hellbent who cost $100,000 at the Inglis Classic Sale.
Pierro is one of three Waterhouse’s Slipper winners who adorn the Breeders’ Plate honour roll, sandwiched between Sebring and Vancouver, while she also won with High Rolling (1998), Sparks (1999), Whittington (2012) and Law (2013).
Platinum JubileeĀ provided Waterhouse and Bott with their first win in Saturday’s other two-year-old feature at Randwick, the Gimcrack Stakes, and they also have three runners in that event.
Too Darn Hot filly Shiki, a $420,000 Magic Millions yearling, ran the fastest time of last Monday’s trial session when winning her trial by half-a-length in 49.46secs.
She will be joined by Home Invasion, daughter of Home Affairs who won the first fillies’ trial in 50.63secs, and Wild Ruler filly The Wildling, who was third behind Shiki in her trial.
Tulloch Lodge’s other trial winner last week was Knightsbridge, who has been steered away from Randwick and will contest the $175,000 Listed Maribyrnong Trial Stakes (1000m) at Flemington.
“Knightsbridge is a natural two-year-old, an absolute natural,” Waterhouse said of the $750,000 Magic Millions colt, a son of her Golden Slipper winner Farnan.
“(He’s a) very good-looking horse, very light on his feet.”
Waterhouse and Bott are chasing back-to-back wins in the Maribyrnong Trial Stakes following Tremonti’s win last year, while they were also successful with Unite And Conquer in 2018.
