Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott enjoyed an extraordinary afternoon at Randwick, saddling a quartet of stakes winners headlined by a brace of group 1s, courtesy of Tropical Squall‘s (Prized Icon) win in the Flight Stakes (G1) and Just Fine‘s (Sea The Stars) triumph in The Metropolitan (G1), two races Waterhouse has dominated in the past years.
Kicking off Waterhouse and Bott’s day in style was $1 million yearling purchase Espionage (AUS) (Zoustar), who led home a trifecta for the stable in the Breeders’ Plate (G3), nosing his head in front at the line to deny Straight Charge (Written By), while well-bred Prost (AUS) (Snitzel) ran well to finish another half a length away in third.
In total seven winners of the Breeders’ Plate have gone on to taste Golden Slipper Stakes (G1) glory. With the Slipper still months away, Bott said they would start mapping a path towards the coveted Rosehill group 1 for the first three home.
“All of them performed very credibly today. We will see how they pull up and work out what path to get in [the Golden Slipper],” he said.
A few races later, Waterhouse rekindled her love affair with the Flight Stakes when Tropical Squall continued her rise up the ranks as she reversed previous placings with Tiz Invincible (I Am Invincible) by making all in the 1600-meter feature, handing Waterhouse her 11th win in the group 1 and third with Bott.
“She has been crying out for the mile,” Bott said. “I was really confident coming here today if we could make it a nice test for them and try and draw a bit of the speed and brilliance out of those others because we know she was prepped for this and ready. I’m just delighted that it’s come off.”
Waterhouse and Bott were handed the second top-flight winner of the afternoon when leading cups fancy Just Fine (Sea The Stars) enhanced his already big reputation when landing the time-honored Metropolitan Handicap (G1, 2400m).
Sent off the odds-on favorite following comfortable wins in Benchmark 94 company and the Kingston Town Stakes (G3, 2000m) in as many outings.
Ridden by Rachel King, the son of Sea The Stars (Cape Cross) pulled clear with eventual runner-up Spirit Ridge (Nathaniel) and fought gallantly to score by a head, the pair finishing a further four and a quarter lengths clear of the third-placed Kalapour (War Command).
“I think that proves he stays 2400 meters,” said King, who was enjoying her fourth victory at the top-level.
“Funny when I spoke to Gai this morning, not that I had a question mark about the 2400 meters, but a question mark people had. I just mentioned that, and she said, ‘Where was this horse born?’ I said ‘England,’ and she said ‘Exactly, your home town. Of course, he’ll stay.’”
Bott indicated that the Melbourne Cup (G1, 3200m) would be almost impossible to ignore after the success.
