Co-trainer Adrian Bott says things couldn’t have fallen into place better for Hawaii Five Oh’s quest to become the first Everest runner to win the $10 million James Squire Golden Eagle (1500m) at Rosehill on Saturday.
Trainer Adrian Bott. (Pic: Bradley Photos).
So far only four horses have attempted to bounce through the TAB Everest into the rich four-year-old feature and the best effort to date was Sunlight’s second placing to Kolding in 2019.
In that year Arcadia Queen (fifth) and Classique Legend (10th) also backed up while Overpass (ninth) last year is the only other horse to tackle both races.
But with an extra week up his sleeve thanks to a three week gap in 2023, Bott said Hawaii Five Oh is well positioned to handle the jump from 1200m to 1500m.
“He’s a class horse getting into the right sweet spot,’’ Bott said.
“He’s had a good grounding, three solid runs in some of the best class sprint races we’ve seen.
“In the short term we’ve seen the Everest form stack up well, most importantly we’re seeing him under probably the most suitable conditions we’ve seen all prep.”
The gelding drew ideally, according to Bott who of course trains with Gai Waterhouse, in gate four but it could have looked very different had Sky’s Ally Mosley drawn one of the other two remaining gates when she stepped up at Tuesday night’s barrier draw.
Gates 18 and 19 were left in the barrel when she extracted the ball with four emblazoned on it.
Bott said his assessment of Hawaii Five Oh’s Everest sixth placing was that it was a gallant performance without having a lot of favours in the run.
“Third-up there it just showed he may have been looking for that little bit further,’’ he said.
“We tried to keep him in line with his race pattern, we had a tricky draw and didn’t get the run in transit we needed. I thought it was a really good run considering.
“The barrier gives us the right options, he’s got the tactical speed and Nash (Rawiller) can play the race as he sees.”
Hawaii Five Oh was $4.60 second favourite with TAB on Friday.
The blinkers go on Singapore import Coin Toss and Bott is expecting improvement from him and fellow import New Endeavour out of their ninth and eleventh in the Silver Eagle (1300m) three weeks ago.
Coin Toss had a handy record in Singapore and while Bott said the form from there is hard to line up he feels he’s received a horse with plenty of upside.
“He’s lightly raced over there and what he’d done in a short period was very promising and the manner in which he’d won those races was very impressive,’’ he said.
“The form is traditionally not as strong as some of the races we’re seeing here but he’s the type of horse we haven’t seen the best of yet.
“That first-up run was important for him. He was beaten for speed over that trip and the blinkers will help him hold a position. He began well but didn’t have the early speed and got out of position but was excellent through the line.”
Former UK galloper New Endeavour raced without luck in the Silver Eagle after jumping well, he was stuck wide on the speed and weakened out of the race.
But Bott isn’t being too hard on the gelding who showed more than enough over a bit more ground in Europe earlier this year to suggest he has the quality to be competitive.
He was purchased shortly before running second over 1609m at Royal Ascot in June and was runner-up in a Group 2 at Newbury before heading to Sydney.
“He’d been racing over the mile in Europe so dropping to the 1300m wasn’t ideal but the education he would have gained from it, having that sharply run race, is important,’’ he said.
“I think going to Rosehill for the first time might have been an ask so the fact he’s had a run under Australian conditions is a big benefit.
“It wouldn’t be a shock to me if those horses stepped up. It’s an open enough race and they deserve their place.”
– Racing NSW
