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| Staff Writer |
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Alligator Blood, the legendary racehorse trained by Gai Waterhouse, narrowly missed out on winning the Cox Plate race last Saturday. However, Waterhouse is now setting her sights on a A$10 million race and believes that Alligator Blood could come out victorious as soon as this Saturday.
At the upcoming $10 million Golden Eagle at Rosehill, Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott are set to launch a formidable two-pronged assault, with Hawaii Five Oh leading the charge. The colt, who is sired by I Am Invincible, recently finished sixth in The Everest, despite having only competed in 11 races prior. Waterhouse is confident that Hawaii Five Oh will make a smooth transition from the 1200m distance of The Everest to the 1500m race on Saturday, and expects him to perform well.
“That won’t be a problem because that’s what he needs,” Waterhouse said.
“He’s a very smart horse, Hawaii Five Oh, he’s very lightly-raced and very good.”
Hawaii Five Oh Returns To The Golden Eagle Race
Hawaii Five Oh will be participating in The Golden Eagle race for the fourth time this season. In his previous race, he finished just a head behind the winner of The Everest, Think About It, in the Group Two Premiere Stakes.
Out of the four horses that have progressed from The Everest to The Golden Eagle, Sunlight is the only one to have placed in either event. Sunlight finished second to Kolding in the inaugural Golden Eagle after finishing 10th in The Everest in 2019. Arcadia Queen participated in both races in 2019, finishing 11th in The Everest and fifth in The Golden Eagle, while Overpass finished sixth and ninth respectively last year.
Waterhouse and Bott have another horse, New Endeavour, participating in The Golden Eagle. New Endeavour is a European gelding who finished 11th in the A$1 million Silver Eagle at his Australian debut.
The Golden Eagle race will be held seven days after the Cox Plate, where Alligator Blood came third, narrowly missing out on the win by just a short-neck to Romantic Warrior. Waterhouse believes that Alligator Blood's performance in the race reaffirmed her belief that the seven-time Group 1 winner is a true champion.
“I’m not disappointed in my horse, he was fantastic,” Waterhouse said.
“He’s a champion. Only champions come here and he fought out the finish. He was game.”
Alligator Blood, the 7YO racehorse, will be moving on to compete in Champions Day at Flemington on 11th November. He is expected to be nominated for both the 1600m Champions Mile and the 2000m Champions Stakes, which are prestigious Group 1 events with a total prize money of A$3 million. It's worth noting that Alligator Blood won the Champions Mile last year.