The Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott barn continue to add to their list of well-performed two-year-olds as Fully Lit (+190) smashed his rivals in the $2 million Inglis Millennium (1100m).
It was the stablemate Trunk (+700) leading them up on a break-neck speed, as he and Art’s Alive (+8000) went head-to-head for the lead, ensuring the back markers would come into play.
Fully Lit sat three wide for the entire journey under Regan Bayliss and did a mountain of work from barrier 15, but it didn’t seem to blunt his turn-of-speed as the two-year-old son of Hellbent made a long-sustained run to the first turn.
Rue De Royale (+600) loomed largely into the picture at the top of the straight and seemed to be prepared to go past the leading trio, while the David Payne-trained Rag Queen (+3300) was screaming home as he did in his first-up victory.
They simply couldn’t match motors with the undefeated colt from the Waterhouse & Bott stable, as his consecutive wins put him well in-play for the Group 1 Golden Slipper (1200m) on March 23.
2024 Inglis Millennium Replay – Fully Lit
Adrian Bott spoke with media in the aftermath of his dominant colts’ performance and didn’t leave a possible tilt at the Group 1 Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m) off the table either.
“It’s fantastic to see,” said Bott.
“We’ve had some great support so I’m very thankful to everyone who’s been able to support us throughout the year and the team at home that’s worked so hard to educate these horses.
“We like to make that a big part of our stable and the education of these young ones and it’s great to see that the results are there.
“He’s certainly going in the right direction, that’s for sure. Obviously it was a restricted race today so we’ll sort of look at the options, whether we do tempt a Blue Diamond.
“We kept him in calculations there. He may stay here in one of the Slipper lead-ups, just keep him at home and look at one of those lead-ups and give him that opportunity to see how he does stack up against the grade. Because every time we’ve raised the bar he’s responded in a big way.”
Regan Bayliss was delighted with the win of his two-year-old and praised his toughness after a tough journey.
“Very tough win,” said Bayliss.
“I got more confident as the day grew on, just how the track was racing that I didn’t need to find that fence. I was quite happy giving him a bang out, and I was so confident in the horse I was happy to sit three-deep and just get him into a rhythm. It was a really tough effort today.”
Depending on where the team elect to head next, Fully Lit is currently +1000 in the Blue Diamond and +2000 in the Golden Slipper markets with top horse racing bookies.
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