Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott have claimed their second Group 3 success in Australia on Saturday afternoon, with Clean Energy (+130) taking out the Don Casboult Classic (1200m), adding to Alalcance’s victory in the Group 3 N E Manion Cup at Rosehill earlier in the day.
Many punters expected the daughter of Zoustar would lead and be favoured by the track leader bias; however, the race favourite with horse racing bookmakers settled well off the speed and stormed home down the middle of the track to record an impressive victory.
Khadime (+1800) took up the lead from Just Like Gaby (+1300), with the likes of Amelita (+900), Madrina (+3300) and Icy Pole (+5000) settling behind them, appreciating the solid tempo in the 1200m contest.
After the leaders rolled off the rails, Amelita was presented with a rails run turning for home, which allowed her to take over with 250m to go.
After giving a good kick upon straightening, it appeared as though Amelita had stolen the race, but Clean Energy looped the field and was starting to finish off strongly.
With Craig Williams getting everything out of his filly, Clean Energy continued to eat up the ground and took over in the final strides to claim her maiden Group victory.
Elouise Dillon represented the winning stable in the post-race interview.
“The plan was to roll forward, but Craig got her into a nice rhythm, and around that bend she took off and finished too well. Very proud of the horse,” Dillon said.
“She’s been in the stable for a few weeks now. The Sydney stable has done a really good job with her.
“A beautiful ride, a beautiful horse and it’s great for the team to get this win.
“She really improved and had come on from that run. She galloped here on Tuesday.
“Craig thought she got through the ground well.
“I will leave that to Gai and Adrian. We’ll see how she pulls up.”
Craig Williams was very happy with the win.
“It’s an honour to win a race in honour of an absolute gentleman and one of the people that has got Moonee Valley and the Cox Plate to where it is. It’s great to see Don here,” Williams said.
“In regards to my horse, Gai and the team have done a great job. I worked her here on Tuesday morning and loved the way she went for me.
“I spoke to Blake Shinn who rode her first-up and he gave me a bit of insight into as well.
“We did have a plan, but she had a different plan than we did and we found ourselves a lot further back.
“We just trusted her and she picked up and showed versatility, not that that is the way to ride her, but it show she can be quite versatile.
“I didn’t make any, she made them. I was really happy to follow Luke Currie (McKelya).
“I thought this is a really nice horse and I thought the quick back up would do it right, and it did.
“I thought it might over-race, but Luke rode a quiet, positive race and I would have liked him to go earlier.
“Because I was helping my horse through the ground, it was quite a challenge, I main job was helping her through the ground for as long as possible. Later on it was her ability.”
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