Irish galloper Adelaide looks certain to contest the 20114 Group 1 $3m Sportingbet Cox Plate (2040m) at Moonee Valley on October 25 after winning in Chicago in the United States over the weekend.
2013 winning jockey Chad Schofield holding the Cox Plate. Photo by Race Horse Photos Australia.
Moonee Valley CEO Michael Browell said that he would recommend that the Aidan O’Brien trained colt be issued with an all-expenses-paid invitation for the Cox Plate after winning the Group 1 US$500,000 Secretariat Stakes (1 mile 2 furlongs) at Arlington Park last Saturday.
Adelaide will now head back to O’Brien’s base at Ballydole in Ireland to be quarantined before heading to Melbourne to compete in the ‘Weight-For-Age Championship of Australasia’.
“He stepped up a notch and beat some very good horses,’’ Coolmore’s Australian spokesman James Bester told the Herald Sun.
“He’s a legitimate Cox Plate contender on that effort.
“The race was run over 2000m on what was described as a very firm track. It was a perfect Cox Plate test.”
“We had debated the best course of action and one course of action was to have Adelaide quarantine in Newmarket and come out and run for Chris Waller.”
“But that did not make as much sense as having him quarantine at Ballydole, where he could stay in his normal routine with his normal handlers all the way through to flying out to Werribee.
“Rather than have him trained by remote control in Newmarket, that way he would certainly stay with Aidan and be trained right into the Cox Plate by Aidan.”
Sydney’s premierships winning trained Chris Waller will then take charge of Adelaide after the Cox Plate and prepare him for the 2015 Sydney Autumn Carnival with the Group 1 $4m Longines Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m) at Randwick high on the agenda.
“Chris will take him over after that with his main mission being the Queen Elizabeth, probably via the George Ryder,” Bester said.
Winning jockey, leading English rider Ryan Moore, was most impressed with Adelaide’s win and said his toughness was one of his key attributes in getting him home.
“He’s the best horse in the race going into it so just thought we would keep it simple,” Moore told the Racing Post.
“The horse on the lead was getting a bit of a soft lead but Adelaide just had more class than the field and got the job done. He’s tough – he’s run in France, Ireland, England, America and America again and he seems to thrive on it.”
Adelaide’s win in the Secretariat Stakes was his third from only six starts and saw him firm in the betting for the Cox Plate with Ladbrokes.com.au to be the second favourite at $13 behind star Kiwi mare Silent Achiever who heads the market order at $11.
Hong Kong Group1 winner Dan Excel, English galloper Mukhadram and dual Doncaster Mile winner Sacred Falls, all share the next line of betting at $15.
