An early gelding procedure appears to have had the desired effect on The Little Pumper, who has given Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott a clean sweep of the two juvenile races at Canterbury.
While the youngster showed promise at his initial campaign as a colt, including when fourth in the Inglis Nursery in December, winning jockey Tim Clark said he was much more focused this time around.
“He has definitely matured with the time out and the gelding and he’s come back a more furnished racehorse now,” Clark said.
“We saw that in his performance there. Once upon a time he might have wanted to overdo it and run through the bridle a little bit, but today he got there, he relaxed really well and he built very nicely.
“The further the race went, the more confident I got and the stronger he became.
“He was really strong through the line and I’m sure once he gets up over 1400 and 1600, he’s going to be even better.”
Starting a $2.30 favourite, The Little Pumper led and gave nothing else a chance, cruising to a two-length win over Sound The Siren ($21) in Wednesday’s Bivouac @ Darley Handicap (1250m), with One Last Shot ($3.50) holding down third.
His victory gave Waterhouse and Bott a race-to-race double after Tropical Storm ($1.55 fav) controlled the All Too Hard @ Vinery Stud Handicap (1250m) in similar fashion.
Winning jockey Adam Hyeronimus holds the Prized Icon filly in high regard and believes she has all the tools to develop into a handy horse.
“I think she’s a very nice filly,” Hyeronimus said.
“A big, strong filly, lovely action, lovely attitude. There’s not much not to like about her.
“There’s quite a lot of ability there. What she did today, it was just a day out for her really.”
Tulloch Lodge representative Neil Paine confirmed the stable had a nice opinion of both two-year-olds and hoped they could continue to progress through their grades.
“It’s a little bit of fun coming here and winning the first two races for Tulloch Lodge,” Paine said.
“Gai and Adrian will be over the moon.”
Waterhouse and Bott have now trained 30 two-year-old winners this season, seven of them at black-type level.
