\n\t\t\t\t\tBy Tayla Dyke\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Listen<\/p>\n
Mornington trainer Shane Nichols is hopeful his in-form filly Always Enuff (Capitalist) can make her presence felt when she lines up in the Lightning Stakes (Listed, 1050m) at Morphettville on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The daughter of Capitalist (Written Tycoon) is shooting for a third consecutive win this preparation, having scored an impressive 1.5-length victory first-up at her home track on June 9, and backed up that performance with a gritty victory at Caulfield on June 28.<\/p>\n
Those performances, along with her natural progression, have prompted Nichols to give the filly another crack at securing the all valuable black-type.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s really come on since Caulfield,\u201d Nichols told ANZ News.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s a very talented three-year-old filly, but what she does do is just clock off a bit in her races. She puts them away easily enough and then just sort of, job done, so that\u2019s a little bit frustrating and she will eventually throw a race away doing that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe has really trained on.\u2029She\u2019s in great nick, having her nice and fresh. The track conditions shouldn\u2019t worry her too much in Adelaide, obviously it\u2019s going to be very wet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Always Enuff made her debut as a two-year-old in the Festival Stakes (Listed, 1000m), finishing unplaced behind Bold Bastille (Brazen Beau), and remained winless at her next two outings. She returned to break her maiden as a spring three-year-old, adding another win before being spelled.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now more mature, Nichols said the filly has flourished this preparation despite a minor foot issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe is a little tricky to train and she has got her little idiosyncrasies but we\u2019re happy enough with her,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe had a bit of a deep\u2013seeded abscess in her heel, and we\u2019ve just been playing around with the shoeing. But I think more so than anything else, she\u2019s physically matured and been able to cope with it a lot better. Just time has been her friend. She\u2019s a very big, robust filly and she just appreciates a bit of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Regular rider Zac Spain will again be aboard on Saturday, having partnered the filly in all but one of her ten career starts, including for three of her four wins. Nichols said there will be minimal instruction with the priority to be finding the best ground on what is expected to be a heavy track.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will be no instructions for [Zac], we will leave him up to his own devices. But I would imagine at some stage, he probably wants to extract himself and get out towards the middle and further, that could be the tricky part, actually getting her into a good spot so she can find the best ground,\u201d Nichols said.<\/p>\n
Always Enuff was a $200,000 Magic Millions National Weanling Sale buy for Supreme Thoroughbreds from Newhaven Park, and was subsequently purchased by Shane Nichols Racing for $300,000 at the 2023 Inglis Premier Yearling Sale, with Supreme retaining part ownership of the filly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She is the second foal out of unraced Reward For Effort (Exceed And Excel) mare Enuff Effort, herself a half-sister to Danehill Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) winner and now Woodside Park Stud sire Rich Enuff (Written Tycoon).<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s won just over $273,000, because she won a $100,000 Inglis Race Series bonus at Bendigo winning her maiden. It doesn\u2019t appear in her record, but she\u2019s won $100,000 more than appears, so she\u2019s getting up towards $300,000 in prize\u2013money,\u201d Nichols said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut black type is obviously the desired thing for any filly, and especially one with a little bit of pedigree. If you can get that black type, it\u2019s very valuable, because you hold it for the rest of their racing life.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe certainly think she\u2019s got the capabilities to make that step to stakes level, and Saturday will be the first opportunity she\u2019s had where I think she is genuinely a chance at a stakes race.\u201d \u2029<\/p>\n
Always Enuff was rated a $14 chance on Thursday afternoon, a quote Nichols feels underrates her.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe is over the odds, certainly each\u2013way,\u201d the trainer said. \u201cI think a couple of my guys have already had something on. I think she is overs, but that\u2019s for the market to determine.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a couple of nice horses in there obviously, and they\u2019re all going to be presented with what we\u2019re assuming is going to be a very wet track and very difficult circumstances, so it could be tricky.\u201d<\/p>\n
Should she succeed on Saturday, Nichols said the filly would likely be aimed at similar stakes contests in the spring.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s a very good short\u2013course horse, so we will follow the opportunities to run in stakes races over 1000 to 1100 metres will be ideal. There\u2019s not that many of them, but that\u2019ll certainly be our intention,\u201d Nichols said.<\/p>\n
Nichols also has an affinity with the offspring of Capitalist and, while he acknowledges the sire\u2019s progeny can have their quirks, he believes the Newgate Farm-based sire is capable of producing top-quality horses.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Always Enuff] is very typical of the Capitalist breed.\u2029Personally, I\u2019ve had quite a few and I\u2019m still actively buying them. But you do know when you buy one that, particularly the fillies, you have to be a little bit gentle with them because they can be a bit mentally fickle,\u201d Nichols said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of them are, but once you work out how they want to be treated they are good. For example, [Always Enuff] is a barrier blanket horse and is a bit tricky in the gates.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBut once you work them out, it\u2019s certainly easier because they\u2019re generally athletic, quick racehorses who enjoy stable life and most of them eat very well. I\u2019ve had probably half-a-dozen Capitalists or maybe more and we still are happy to buy one if we find the right one.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nichols was active at each of the sales this season, purchasing 20 yearlings to join his Mornington stable.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Among the more high\u2013profile of those purchases include a filly by Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj) out of Group 1 winner Oohood (I Am Invincible) which fetched $380,000 at Inglis Premier, as well as a $200,000 filly by Newgate Farm freshman Wild Ruler (Snitzel), and a well-regarded filly by Home Affairs (I Am Invincible).\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe bought 30 last year and then we cut it back to 20 this year, and there are definitely a couple of nice ones there. There\u2019s a Wild Ruler filly that I think is going to be pretty sharp, and a Home Affairs filly that I think looks like it\u2019s up and about,\u201d Nichols said.<\/p>\n
\u201c[The Wootton Basset filly] has had two preps, just going back to the paddock. She\u2019ll get an opportunity to race early. I think she\u2019s probably more so an autumn filly than a spring filly, but she\u2019s going through a massive growth spurt at the moment. She\u2019s a lovely filly to deal with on a day-to-day basis.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Tayla Dyke Listen Mornington trainer Shane Nichols is hopeful his in-form filly Always Enuff (Capitalist) can make…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[3004,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-21468","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}