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Olentia shines in first-up win

A look at some of the other angles from Hill Stakes day at Rosehill 

OLENTIA winning the THE NIVISON at Rosehill in Australia.
OLENTIA winning the THE NIVISON at Rosehill in Australia. Picture: Steve Hart

Alabama State gives Pilkington first city win 

Jack Pilkington has celebrated his first city victory as a trainer with promising colt Alabama State successful at Rosehill.

Alabama State has been Pilkington's only runner to the races at this point, with the three-year-old notching his third win, and first in town, at his ninth career start in Saturday's Midway Handicap (1400m) as the $3.60 favourite.

"It's pretty huge for my career," Hawkesbury-based Pilkington said of his first city win.

"I love this horse. He's amazing. He's always given me the feel that he's pretty special.

"How he got out of that hole, I've got absolutely no idea. He had no right to win after what was going on in the straight there.

"The performance, I was actually expecting today. I had more confidence coming into this race than I've had going into any of the others."

Pilkington said the $500,000 Four Pillars Midway over 1500m at Rosehill on November 2 loomed as the likely next step for Alabama State, who was held up for clear running early in the straight in Saturday's race before sprinting well once clear in the final 200m to defeat Treize by 1-1/4-lengths.

Pilkington set up his stable last year with Alabama State his first runner in January.

"I've worked in nine countries around the world and worked in lots of different stables, basically trying to learn as much as I possibly could off all of them," he said.

"Since I was based in Australia, I ran Mark Newnham's Warwick Farm stable for a while and I did a couple of years as a racing manager for Chris Waller, so those last two were my springboard before I started."

 

 

Stapleford steers Who Ever Thought to Highway win

 

Scone trainer Jeremy Gask has described the Highway Handicap win with Who Ever Thought as a satisfying moment.

Who Ever Thought raced to a frontrunning win under apprentice Mitch Stapleford in Saturday's 1500m Highway to claim his fourth victory from 12 career starts.

Who Ever Thought, now a six-year-old gelding, only made his debut a year ago.

"It's very satisfying, particularly, he's had his challenges this horse," Gask said.

"So it's full credit to the staff and Mitch has done a fantastic job with him, he rated him perfectly.

"You can see his age, he's had a few troubles along the way, not injuries in training or racing as such, just bizarre accidents.

"How he's still with us, I don't know."

Gask said Who Ever Thought was also a bit of a character.

"He's got his own way of doing things and certainly leading and having his own way in front is one of them," the trainer said.

Who Ever Thought pressed forward to find the lead and gave a nice kick in the home straight before holding on to defeat Mazita by three-quarters of a length, with Straight Fire third.

The victory gave Stapleford his second city winner.

"I love this horse, he's one of my favourites," the apprentice said.

"He just keeps giving and he doesn't know how to run a bad race."

 

Anode holds on to win the Tapp-Craig 

 

Anode has bounced back from an unplaced run in the Group 1 Golden Rose to score a narrow win in the Listed Tapp-Craig.

The Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained colt ran a big race first-up this preparation to be narrowly beaten by Traffic Warden in the Group 2 Run To The Rose, before beating only two runners home in the Golden Rose two weeks ago.

Anode was sent out the $2.80 favourite on Saturday and gave a good kick in the straight under jockey Tim Clark but Just Party started to reel him in late along the inside only to just miss in a photo finish.

"I think he went so well first-up and I think it just took the gas out of him a little bit in the Golden Rose, obviously up against the best three-year-olds," Clark said.

"Obviously the drop back a little bit in grade really suited him, and he just got a little bit lost out there when he did put a margin on them.

"He was just waiting a little bit for them, but thankfully he got his head down when it mattered."

The win was Anode's second in nine starts and his first victory at stakes level having previously been placed in stakes company four times.

Bott said it was a deserved win and indicated the Group 2 Callander-Presnell (1600m) in two weeks was a likely next step for the colt.

"Throughout his career he's run some big races against some very good formline horses, so to get a nice result today, it's very satisfying," Bott said.

 

 

Here To Shock wins again in NSW 

Here To Shock has backed up his recent win the Cameron Handicap at Newcastle with a determined victory in the $1.5 million Alan Brown Stakes.

And now a tilt at the $2 million Big Dance at Randwick on November 5 looms for the Ben, Will and JD Hayes-trained gelding having qualified for that race with his win at Newcastle.

Jockey Nash Rawiller  has been aboard Here To Shock in both the Cameron and Saturday's Alan Brown Stakes and praised the placement of the Hayes brothers with Here To Shock.

"He's a beauty," Rawiller said.

"Great effort by the team to get him up here at the right time for these races. I'm sure he would have been competitive down there (in Melbourne) too, but I don't think they would have been going around for $1.5 million with him.

"It's great foresight and congratulations to them."

Seven-year-old Here To Shock was fourth coming to the home turn and hit the front approaching the 200m.

Gringotts issued a late challenge but Here To Shock rallied to score by a long head with a neck back to the fast-finishing Waterford.

"Although he was lost in front, when he needed to he found when the chips were down," Rawiller said.

 

Olentia impresses in first-up win

 

Champion trainer Chris Waller believes Olentia is a Group One winner-in-waiting after showing her class in another convincing first-up win.

With Tommy Berry aboard, Olentia made it four first-up wins from five attempts with a 1-1/4-length victory over Danny's St Darci in the Group 3 The Nivison (1200m).

Waller now plans to send Olentia to the $2 million The Invitation (1400m) at Randwick in two weeks and he is confident the mare has a Group 1 win in her at some point.

"She deserves to win a Group One race," Waller said.

"I'm not sure when that will be or where it will be. The Invitation is in two weeks time, she'll probably get one (invitation) on the back of that, it's a big race, I think it's a $2 million race and a Group Two, so that's what I'm thinking (next)."

Waller mentioned the Rupert Clarke Stakes at Caulfield at the end of the spring as one possible elite-level target for her.

Olentia took her overall record to seven wins from 15 starts and brought up a Rosehill treble for the Waller stable after earlier wins to Medatsu and Switzerland.

 

Quote of the Day: "She can go all the way, I think."- champion trainer Chris Waller is convinced Olentia, impressive first-up winner of The Nivison, has the ability to win a Group 1 race.