The ace up the sleeve of the Michael, Wayne and John Hawkes stable with their $3.15 million BMW Caulfield Cup fancy Inference is the blinkers, and it might prove to be the final piece in the puzzle for the four-year-old entire’s grand final this prep.
The son of So You Think has enjoyed a very promising first prep in open-age grade.
The Randwick Guineas winner is unplaced in four spring runs but that certainly doesn’t tell the full story of his form, in which he was only four-and-a-half lengths off Winx in the Warwick Stakes, within two-and-a-half lengths of Bonneval in the Underwood and only four lengths back in the Caulfield Stakes won by Gailo Chop.
As co-trainer Wayne Hawkes pointed out, Inference has some score on the board benefitting from the head gear in a staying contest.
“He’s done everything right, he’s had a good run into the race, if he’s good enough, he’ll certainly be there,” Hawkes said on Friday.
“That’s [applying the blinkers] always been the plan; we just never said anything about it.
“We had the one-eyed blinker on him in the VRC Derby, and he ran pretty good, so we’ll put the full blinkers back on him and see how he goes tomorrow.”
Hawkes’ father John trained Railings to his first Caulfield Cup win in 2005. Until then, the Cup had been a missing trophy in the Hawkes’ cabinet, but not like that was a knock on his career – for perspective, he entered the Australian Racing Hall of Fame prior to his first win in the Melbourne spring Cups.
Twelve years on from that Cup success, the family training trio of John and his sons are looking to combine with Inference, but Wayne said there is a lot more to the story than them achieving something together.
“It’d be a big thrill [to win the Cup],” he said.
“Lindsay Maxsted, who part owns this horse, is probably our longest-serving stable client, so him and his mates are a great bunch of blokes. Greg Ingham [too], Jack Ingham’s son, who owns Chautauqua … there’ll be a bit of emotion there tomorrow if he can get the job done.
“We bought Inference’s mother [Pontiana] at the yearling sales [in 2009], so it’s been a long time coming this plan.”
Meanwhile, there is a case to be made for Euro Angel in the G2 Tristarc Stakes, given her misfortune suffered in the G2 Blazer Stakes on October 7.
“She’s still trying to get out,” Hawkes rued.
“When you’re three back at Flemington – Dwayne rode her really well – it was just how she jumped and how she lobbed and where she was, you don’t want to be three back the fence at Flemington, because you can’t get a run.
“But Dwayne was stuck there, so he couldn’t do anything about it.”
Hawkes said had Euro Angel had got the breaks and won the Blazer she’d be favourite or close to it on Saturday.
“She’s done everything right, and as I said, she didn’t win the other day but she’d have gone awfully close with a clear crack at them. So last-start winners always come up a $4 favourite no matter what they do,” he said.
Euro Angel is a $21 chance.
The Rip Van Winkle mare won three of her first six starts, but hasn’t won in 10 runs since – albeit multiple Group-level placings and contesting races at Group 1 level.
And comparing her chances to Foxplay’s – the latter being $4.80 – there is a case to be made for Euro Angel as a value runner, as Hawkes’ mare finished only 2.6 lengths off Chris Waller’s star in the G1 Queen of the Turf over a mile in the autumn, and gets a 4.5kg swing on her from that performance.
– racing.com
