Two-year-old colt Yardstick has made a successful start to his racing career late in his juvenile season at Canterbury and formed part of a winning treble on the midweek program for jockey Nash Rawiller.
The Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained Yardstick led all-the-way to win the Sky Racing Active Plate (1100m) for two-year-old colts and geldings in Wednesday’s opening race, while later in the seven-race program Rawiller also won aboard Decroux and Best Stone.
Yardstick was sent out the $2.45 favourite off two recent barrier trial wins and he raced to a 1-1/4-length victory, with Magic Ruler second and Rule Of Law third.
Rawiller described Yardstick as “a ripping colt”.
“Every time he has stepped out he’s improved a little bit and today was a good stepping stone for him,” Rawiller told Sky Thoroughbred Central.
“There was a bit of form in the race and probably some race-fit horses but his ability carried him through.
“He’s had a good blow and he should improve a lot from the run.
“He’s had a good grounding and is very well-educated. He can hopefully build into the early part of the spring, have a crack at something at Listed or Group level and come back a nice horse next preparation.”
The TAB reacted to Yardstick’s debut, tightening the colt from $51 to $26 for the Group One Golden Rose (1400m) for three-year-olds in late September.
Bott believes Yardstick is open to improvement because he said the colt still showed a bit of inexperience on Wednesday.
“There’s certainly plenty of signs there to show that he’s a nice horse and certainly very progressive,” Bott said.
In the maiden for two-year-old fillies on the program, the Yes Yes Yes New To Coolmore Plate (1100m), the well-bred Kris Lees-trained Redoute’s Image returned from a spell in good fashion, chasing down Yardstick’s stablemate La Floret under jockey Andrew Gibbons to score by a short neck in her fifth career start.
