Gai Waterhouse made it an early double on Epsom Handicap Day at Royal Randwick today with stablemates Hampton Court and Duccio running the Dulcify Quality 2014 quinella for the Tulloch Lodge stables.
Hampton Court saluted for the punters in the 2014 Dulcify Quality Handicap. Photo: Steve Hart.
On the back of winning her fourth straight NSW Thoroughbred Breeders’ Plate win with Vancouver, Waterhouse was back in the winners’ stall with her progressive Redoute’s Choice colt Hampton Court taking out the $100,000 Listed TAB Betting Season Dulcify Quality (1600m).
Coming off a fourth to Sweynesse in the Group 3 Spring Stakes (1600m) at Newcastle on September 17, Hampton Court dug deep and despite not everything going his way got the job done for the favourite backers in the Dulcify with Hong Kong-based hoop Joao Moreira in the saddle.
The win continued the good form coming out of the Spring Stakes after the winner Sweynesse backed up to take out the Group 3 Gloaming Stakes (1800m) at Rosehill last Saturday.
Hampton Court and the Brazilian-born Moreira, in town for the ride on He’s Your Man in the $500,000 Group 1 Epsom Handicap (1600m) later on the card, jumped away well from the inside alley.
Surprisingly though they were beaten to the front early by stablemate Duccio and jockey Tim Clark who put the pressure on to set the pace and who looked like scoring an upset Dulcify Quality result after crossing to lead on the rails.
In the end however the $2.80 favourite was too good coming back to run down the market mover Duccio ($7.50) and score by three-quarters of a length.
In third one and a quarter lengths off the Dulicfy Quality winner was then the Gerald Ryan-trained Bachman tracking nicely for his shot at the $1.5 million Group 1 AAMI Victoria Derby (2500m) at Flemington on November 1.
“No word to describe how good I’m feeling,” winning jockey Moreira said post-win.
“I’m just a lucky boy to be sitting on top of him today.
“He looks great and I did do a little bit of homework on this horse particularly.”
Hampton Court is also nominated for the 2014 Victoria Derby during the Melbourne Cup Carnival as well as Saturday week’s $400,000 Group 1 Spring Champion Stakes (2000m).
A decision from Waterhouse on whether to return to Randwick and back Hampton Court up on October 11 for the Spring Champion Stakes is pending.
Waterhouse is one of the leading Spring Champion Stakes winning trainers since 1983 with three wins from 15 starts.
Last year’s Dulcify Quality winner was Rock Hero who did run on the short seven day turnaround but could only manage to cross four lengths away eighth behind Complacent in the Group 1.
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2014 Dulcify Quality Results & Finishing Order
Randwick Race 3 – 04/10/2014
| Place | # | Horse | Trainer | Jockey | Margin | Br. | Wgt. | SP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | HAMPTON COURT | Gai Waterhouse | Joao Moreira | – | 1 | 54kg | $2.50F |
| 2 | 4 | DUCCIO | Gai Waterhouse | Tim Clark | 0.8L | 3 | 54kg | $7.50 |
| 3 | 1 | BACHMAN | Gerald Ryan | Corey Brown | 2.1L | 5 | 59kg | $4 |
| 4 | 6 | LADY MACAN | David Payne | Jeff Lloyd | 3.5L | 6 | 54kg | $21 |
| 5 | 7 | THUNDER LADY (NZ) | John Sargent | Jim Byrne | 3.6L | 4 | 54kg | $14 |
| 6 | 2 | SCRATCH ME LUCKY | Paul Perry | Blake Shinn | 4L | 2 | 58kg | $5.50 |
| 7 | 5 | DEADSET | Patrick Webster | Christian Reith | 5.5L | 7 | 54kg | $18 |
