“He's A Versatile Horse” – Walter Lands At The Crux Of What Makes Private Eye So Successful

The finest moment of the 5YO son of Al Maher’s stellar career was when he overtook the best sprinter on the planet, Nature Strip, in the sixth edition of the Everest. The challengers came over the final 100m however with Giga Kick flying past the favourite, beating the Joe Pride-trained Private Eye by a long neck, a result nobody expected.

“He was awesome. I have always been a big fan of him. To see him sprint at that level. I thought I was the winner there for two strides. I had the big horse covered in front of me and then the 3YO got me late. He was awesome,” Private Eye’s jockey, Brenton Avdulla said.

“Nature Strip is quite a horse but I guess he's like all of us. He can have his off days. But his run was still meritorious because he had to work hard from a wide gate and didn't get the control of the tempo that he often does being such a big fast horse. Plus, you know they're not machines. He's been all around the world this year, has barely had a spell and might be looking for a rest,” said Walter.

“When you’ve got a horse like him who's finally learned to conserve his energy, then common sense suggests he's going to have more to give in a finish. Top sprinters can have little breaks in between and they don’t need as much work on the track to get them fit in most cases. So maybe Nature Strip will keep going, maybe he'll make a complete liar out of me and win the Champions Sprint. But it wouldn’t be the first time a horse has made a fool of me,” said Walter of the Everest favourite.

Nature Strip was bidding for back-to-back Everest wins but was forced to sit deep from a wide barrier and when given his cue at the 300m, the chestnut responded to establish a break on his chasers. But it was short-lived.

Although The Everest was robbed of one of its leading contenders when Lost And Running was scratched on race morning, trainer Chris Waller said Nature Strip did not disgrace himself in defeat. “It didn’t quite work out the way we wanted it to but at the 50 metres he still looked the winner,” Waller said.

Private Eye will be hoping to cement himself as a superstar over the next few weeks.

“The plan all along was to race him in the Champions Mile at Flemington on the last day of the Carnival. So, Private Eye will hopefully progress to that race via the Nature Strip Stakes in a fortnight at Rosehill.

“The only sort of proviso would be that we wouldn't really want to run on a heavy track (10). But then he’ll back up from wherever he runs, and a week later go into the Champions Mile,” said Walter.

Private Eye has won 9 of his 22 career races, placed runner thrice and landed third place once. The Joseph Pride-trained gelding has won at Group One level and has amassed A$4,428,060 in career earnings, with his most significant win to date, the A$1.5 million Epsom Handicap, defeating Aramayo.

“We haven't got down to make any long-term plans. And I guess one of the reasons for that is he's certainly this preparation seems to have gone up a division or, at least improved from the best he displayed previously.

“And I hasten to add, he's so versatile. We didn't expect him to be that competitive at 1200 metres even though he's always raced well fresh and his 1200-metre record reads very impressively. Now it's something like six starts, four wins, and a narrow second in the Everest. But this is a horse that also won a Group One at a mile in the Epsom, unluckily beaten over 1400 in the Stradbroke and ran fifth in the MacKinnon 12 months ago over 2000m. So, we're a bit spoilt for choice.

“It's merely a question of where we want to go with him and what we want to set him for and that's the domain of the trainer.

“We could also keep him fresh and go to the Champions Sprint on the same day as the Champions Mile. So, there's that to consider as well,” said Walter with a clear understanding of what he was looking at in Private Eye.

A race that has Jamie Walter going is the great Australian 2000m Gr.1 Cox Plate.

“I know Joe would like to win a Cox Plate. So would I and the owners. This is a horse who has clearly shown that he's very competitive over 1200. If he can stretch that to 2000 there's no reason that the Cox Plate could not become a realistic target,” he said.

With the Everest behind everyone, the next race that has Walter excited is the Gr.1 Melbourne Cup, with his other star, Stockman in the frame. We are very excited about him.”

“He's kind of been advantaged by the fact that we've only had three good tracks in Sydney in the last 12 months. An extraordinary statistic that's probably helped him.

“He may be trending towards preferring better ground because closer examination of his performances in the last 12 months, the two best runs of his career to date have been on soft ground, not heavy. So, I think he could have a few more strings to his bow in as much as he's not as reliant on heavy tracks now,” said Walter.

“A lot of heavy track middle distance staying horses are advantaged because the superior turn of foot that some of their rivals have, is nullified on really wet ground. Also, the longer the race, I find the less significant the turn of foot. Stockman seems to be enjoying getting out in distance.

“His run in the Metropolitan was very good but in the Sydney Cup he was on a quagmire when he drew badly and was back in the field and never really got into it. I think he deserves another chance in the Melbourne Cup. And I will say in my living memory, this is the weakest Melbourne Cup I've ever seen.

“Unless there's an overseas visiting horse that settles in beautifully and is just too classy for our stayers, I think this year represents real opportunity and Stockman is coming solid as they say at the right time,” said Walter.

The seasoned horseman delves deeper into the issues currently plaguing the industry which have unexpectedly impacted Australia’s ‘race that stops the nation’, “Our breeding industry’s preoccupation with Sprint racing has contributed to that (a lack-lustre Melbourne Cup field).

“In the last 12 to15 years is our leading staying races are just dominated by imports that have been purchased to race here. Or horses trained overseas who come here specifically to compete in certain races. I think one year about three or four years ago, something like 80 or 90% of the Melbourne Cup field was imports.

“But I also think even amongst the horses that have been purchased in the last 12 months or last couple of years to compete here, aren't as good this year from what I've seen so that represents opportunity and Stockman is a fully mature horse now,” he said.

With the yearling sales just around the corner, Walter expounds on the strategy that he adheres to and which has kept him in good stead.

“I'm a pretty prolific buyer at yearling sales during the year. We buy generally between 30 and 40 horses which takes a bit of syndicating and haven't bought an import yet.

“I'll tell you one thing that's changing here in Australia and that's probably because our obsession with precocious speed is going to be overheated. The Cox Plate is becoming a stallion-making race.

“So, I'm rather hoping for a more balanced Australian racing landscape that the Cox Plate does become as sought after a race as the Golden Slipper, because a lot of Australian owners like me want to win races like that and want to win Melbourne Cups.

“So, it would be great if Australian breeding could start producing middle-distance horses capable of winning Cox Plates,” said Walter with finality.