“Like anybody, if they leave me alone, I can just train the horse. I can’t put it in a formula what you do sometimes as a trainer, but you know we dream dreams, don’t we?”
Price paid tribute to co-trainer Mick Kent jnr and the “40 staff and all our pre-trainers and all our equestrian friends” who celebrated the win.
Jubilation aside, as a Cox Plate audition, the light Might And Power field failed the test. It is hard to see any of Treasurethe Moment, Buckaroo or even the victorious Globe troubling big guns such as Via Sistina and Sir Delius at the Valley in a fortnight’s time.
The $3 million group 1 Guineas is now more likely to throw up a Cox Plate threat.
The Chris Waller-trained colt Autumn Boy streeted his rivals in the 1600m stallion-making race, emulating the feats of his sire The Autumn Sun, who saluted for Waller in the 2018 Caulfield Guineas.
“We’re proud of all the horses that come through the stable, but when we’ve got champions like The Autumn Sun and we’ve got sons and daughters, it’s pretty special,” Waller said.
Globe stormed to victory by three lengths in a race featuring just four horses.Credit: Getty Images
“Last week, Autumn Glow. Now it’s a super colt with Autumn Boy – it’s pretty special.”
But the country’s best trainer was tight-lipped about whether his latest gun colt would be headed to the Valley on October 25.
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“I don’t normally because they’re still babies,” Waller said. “He’s only had four or five starts, I think. So, it’ll be unlikely for us, but we’ll see what comes out next week, you’ve got the luxury of just sitting tight. He’s not overly raced so you can do it, but we’ll have to see how good Via Sistina’s going.”
Waller labelled Autumn Boy’s jockey Damian Lane a “world-class sportsman” for making a trainer’s “job so much easier”.
Queensland trainer Tony Gollan has a live Cox Plate runner in Antino, but he tasted early spring success in the cooler Victorian climate when his runner Translantic edged out Evaporate in the $1 million group 1 Toorak Handicap.
It has been a big fortnight for the Queenslanders after the Brisbane Lions won the AFL flag and the Broncos took out the NRL and NRL premierships.
“There’s something in the water in Brisbane at the moment,” Gollan remarked.
It was back-to-back Tooraks for the Brisbane trainer, who won last year’s race with Antino.
It is back to the drawing board for connections of Treasurethe Moment, a four-year-old mare who many thought could be the equal of another Yulong-owned star in Via Sistina.
“She really laboured late, which was really unlike her,” jockey Damian Lane said of the Matt Laurie-trained Treasurethe Moment, which has been recovering from a colic attack.
“First thoughts are disappointing without dissecting the race, going through the sectionals and everything like that, but I would expect at her best she’d go past Globe.”
Gun hoop James McDonald said Buckaroo was a “tad below his best because he was there to win and he just grinded it out, a bit one-paced”, which suggests the imported gelding might be better suited to next week’s 2400m Caulfield Cup.
In another of the afternoon’s fairytale stories, talented sprinter Giga Kick returned to form with a comprehensive victory in the group 2 Schillaci Stakes.
Giga Kick is trained by Clayton Douglas, ridden by Mark Zahra and owned by Jonathan Munz.
Douglas said his phone was on for an invite to next week’s mega-sprint race The Everest, but had been setting his sights on the VRC Champions Sprint at the end of Melbourne Cup week.
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