Gai Waterhouse has won just about everything there is to win in racing. However, one trophy has remained elusive for the champion trainer – the Cox Plate. The first lady of Australian racing, as Waterhouse was described upon her induction into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame, is determined to change that.
Alligator Blood Could End the Cox Plate Drought for Waterhouse
The legendary horse trainer nominated ten horses for the weight-for-age race, taking place on October 28. According to Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, her training partner, one of those ten, Alligator Blood, has a decent chance of winning the race that is to be run at Melbourne’s Moonee Valley.
Waterhouse added that this year they would have the “biggest representation in the Melbourne Cup, so they were excited about that as well.
Alligator Blood is a seven-year-old gelding that has won 16 races, six of which were Group 1 events, and collected close to $7 million. Should he win the Cox Plate, it would be his biggest triumph.
The Waterhouse stable star will run at Caulfield on Saturday, and, at $2.30, he is the favourite to win. However, Alligator Blood will have to fight off the challenge from Just Fine, a five-year-old gelding also trained by Waterhouse and Bott.
Assault on the Race that Stops a Nation
Just Fine is among the front-runners for the Melbourne Cup and will be one of a group of Waterhouse elite-level competitors vying for the top spot on the podium. Waterhouse’s only triumph at the Melbourne Cup came in 2013 when Fiorente won the race that stops a nation.
However, Waterhouse is confident they could win the Melbourne Cup this year, as their best prospects are in good form. At $8, Just Fine, who is “now a Group 1 horse,” is a serious contender according to the bookies, and so is Hoo Ya Mal, who finished as runner-up in the English Derby recently.
