A lovely sit from Tim Clark has seen Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott’s lightly-raced gelding Converge take out the Listed Fernhill Stakes (1600m) on Day 2 of The Championships at Randwick.
Punters weren’t fussed before the jump with the son of Frankel drifting out to $3.40 in the market, but Clark proved the difference on the favourite by parking him one-off the speed before producing a bursting run over the final 150m to win by over a length.
The two-year-old cemented himself as a horse to watch winning on debut at Warwick Farm during the spring, while he also had a class edge over some of his rivals on Saturday after finishing runner-up to Saif in the Group 3 Schweppervescence at Rosehill a fortnight ago.
Despite the late drift, Converge took out the Listed Fernhill Stakes in impressive style at Randwick. Photo: Steve Hart.
Co-trainer Adrian Bott said after the race that it was important he saved his best stuff for last.
“Obviously first time at the mile today, just wanted to be a little bit conservative, we thought there just might have been a little bit of pressure from the outside,” Bott said.
“He’s such an attractable horse and we asked him to come back as you saw and he settled nicely. We knew he had a sharp turn of foot, and we just wanted to save that for him.”
The Fernhill is often a key lead-up race heading into the Group 1 Champagne Stakes back over the mile at Randwick in seven day’s time, and it appears the stable are giving good thought to backing up in the $500,000 feature.
“We’ll give serious consideration to backing up in next weekend for the Champagne Stakes, that was always on the cards. We just wanted to come here today and see him at the mile first and we can assess from there,” Boss went on to say.
Converge was $17 in Ladbrokes’ All-In Champagne Stakes market prior to Saturday’s as he looks to become the third horse since Prized Icon (2016) to complete the double.
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