Gai and Adrian plan to go down swinging with century in sight

Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott are enjoying their best season together but there is one more goal they would like to achieve in the final 10 metropolitan meetings: getting to the magical mark 100-win mark in Sydney for the term.

Chris Waller will be Sydney’s champion trainer for the 14th consecutive season, but the Tulloch Lodge team has 84½ wins, and, if they pick another 16 wins in the final month of the season, they would become the sixth stable to crack 100 wins in Sydney and not win the trainers premiership.

Former Kiwi I’mintowin wins his first Australian start at Rosehill last year.

“We have a good group of progressive horses coming through the stable at the moment, and you have to have a target, and 100 wins in Sydney is a good one to have,” Bott said. “I don’t know if it is possible, but we will give it a crack.

“It has been a great season, winning the right races. We had an excellent two-year-old team, which has us in the position to try and get 100 winners in Sydney.”

Waterhouse and Bott have won nearly $30 million in prizemoney and six group 1s this season, including the Golden Slipper with Lady Of Camelot and the Magic Millions with boom colt Storm Boy.

While racing continues through the cold of winter, Bott has welcomed back his spring team to Randwick. A raft of stars have start their preparations, and there are Everest dreams for rising three-year-olds Lady Of Camelot, Storm Boy, Straight Charge and Espionage.

“They were always sharp, and it is good to have them back in; now we have to see where they fit in,” Bott said. “At the beginning of the preparations, they are candidates for all the big races.

“We are going to have some three-year-olds ready for the early stakes races, and races like the Golden Rose and Caulfield Guineas are certainly targets for us, as well as The Everest.

“We will work out where they sit in the next couple of months and let them show us where they fit in.

“A horse like Storm Boy I have always thought would get to a mile, so the Caulfield Guineas is there for him, but, if he’s sharper, he could go to The Everest. It makes this time of year exciting.”

However, Bott is still focused on the racing at hand and takes a strong team to Rosehill highlighted by a couple of interesting imports.

Former European Ha Ha Ha has had the benefit of a run in Australia when she led and gave a good kick when beaten a length by Amati over 1300m. She will step out to 1400m and is the $4.60 second pick in betting on Saturday.

“She is one of the horses that I think can progress through her grades at this time of year,” Bott said. “I like the way she fought back in the final 100m first up. She will be better for that run and I think you will see improvement.”

Punters have found Bear On The Loose as he makes his Australian debut. He is one of the best-supported runners on the 11-race card, firming from $6.50 to $5.50. He hasn’t raced since September last year when he put back-to-back wins together at Epsom and Chester in England.

“We have given him time, and he is a horse that has caught my interest,” Bott said. “His form over there says he is going to be a 2000m-plus horse here, so we will start him off at 1800m and see how he goes.

“He has been good in both of his barrier trials, and we will get a good idea where he is at on Saturday.”

Bott will also saddle up former Kiwi I’mintowin as a $4.60 favourite for his second-up run in his second Australian preparation. I’mintowin was runner-up to the emerging Franz Josef when he returned a fortnight ago at the same trip of 1500m.

“We probably learned a bit about him last time, when we rushed him up in trip after he won first up,” Bott said. “We have decided to keep around the mile this time because I think he can be effective at that trip.

“He was another one that was very good first up and has shown he will improve at home and should be pretty sharp at the end of 1500m.

“A lot of these horses are probably going to get to better races in time, and we are hoping they can get a couple of wins in the next month.”