Vauban ($9.00) has come with a withering burst to claim the Group 3 Sky High Stakes (2000m) at Rosehill on Saturday afternoon, defying a big betting drift prior to the jump.
The son of Galiway was making his debut for the Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott barn on Saturday after being transferred from the Willie Mullins camp, and the former Melbourne Cup favourite was unwanted with horse racing bookmakers after sweating up badly behind the barriers.
It was all one-way traffic in betting prior to the jump, with Lindermann heavily backed into , and was expected to make every post a winner after taking out the same race 12 months ago.
The Chris Waller-trained gelding was able to dictate terms to the small field of six, strolling to the lead under the urgings of Nash Rawiler, while Arapaho () was able to get into the ultimate stalking position behind the leader.
Tim Clark was happy to bide his time at the rear of the field aboard Vauban, allowing the seven-year-old to settle in the run after being unable to do so in his first two Australian starts.
Rawiller pulled the whip aboard Lindermann and put four lengths on his rivals with 400-metre left to travel, with Arapaho the first to make headway in the home straight.
The pair looked to fight out the finish; however, it was the fast-finishing Vauban putting in the big strides at the 200-metre pole, with the European import launching over the top to claim his first win since August 2024.
An elated Adrain Bott was on course to discuss Vauban’s barrier manners and what’s next for his talented stayer.
“Obviously we’ve had a bit of time now to work through that,” said Bott.
“That was sort of part of the reason for bringing him to so many racecourse gallops, exposures, and trials.
“As much as we can give him that exposure and get him used to the conditions here as possible.
A 36-degree day today as well will help him acclimatise pretty quickly.
“It’s been a fantastic job for him. I didn’t mind that he got a bit sweaty today. I was pre-empting that he would.
“Group One next start—the Tancred Stakes over 2,400 m. I think that’ll be a great race for him, and then we decide what we do off the back of that.”
Tim Clark echoed a similar sentiment to Bott, getting Vauban to relax in his races the key to success.
“We’ve been working behind the scenes to keep him as calm as possible,” said Clark.
“Although we didn’t see him quite execute that in the yard, that’s probably just him a little bit; we’ve got to get used to that. For him to do what he just did, what a remarkable win and a fantastic training effort by Gai and Adrian.”
“In the run, he relaxes really well and goes to sleep. You can put him anywhere. That’s probably the good thing; he uses a fair bit of energy in the yard, but in the run he conserves a lot of energy.”
Vauban is now an equal favourite at for the Group 1 Tancred Stakes (2400m) on March 29.
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