Boomwaa won the Group 3 Maribyrnong Plate (1000m) in dominant fashion at Flemington on Emirates Stakes Day and, based on that performance, trainer Robbie Laing is confident that the classy juvenile can take out the $250,000 William Inglis Classic (1200m) at Royal Randwick on January 18.
Boomwaa won the Maribyrnong Plate in impressive fashion during the 2013 Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival. Photo by: Race Horse Photos Australia
Boomwaa made his racing debut with a third place finish behind Risen From Doubt in the Listed Maribyrnong Trial Stakes (1000m) at Flemington on October 5 and finished an unlucky fourth behind Silversands in the Inglis Banner (1000m) at Moonee Valley on Cox Plate Day.
The Mutawaajid gelding went into the Maribyrnong Plate on the third line of betting but was far too good for the rest of the field; storming clear in the final stages of the race to beat Lockroy and Silent Whisper by three lengths.
Laing could not have been more impressed with the nature of Boomwaa’s win in the Group 3 event and immediately sent the two-year-old to the spelling paddock with an eye on the inflated prizemoney on offer in the restricted Inglis Classic.
“He is a William Inglis Classic horse and that is a very restricted race, you are only allowed to come out of that one sale catalogue, and he was so dominant in the Maribyrnong Plate that we immediately put him out,” Laing told Racing Ahead.
“He will either have a run at Warwick Farm a fortnight before, I think it is about January 4th, or just run in the William Inglis Classic on the 18th.”
Laing won the 2012 edition of the Maribyrnong Plate with Direct Charge and the Charge Forward colt went on to finish third behind Marseille Roulette and Fuerza in the 2013 edition of the William Inglis Classic.
The veteran trainer believes that Direct Charge was unlucky not to win the William Inglis Classic but still rates Boomwaa a more talented horse than the three-year-old who has not been seen at the races since finishing towards the tail of the field in the Group 2 Henry Bucks Sires Produce Stakes (1400m) in March this year.
“We won the Maribyrnong Plate last year with Direct Charge and he ran third in the Inglis; he was caught up in that heat wave on the way back up there and he was down on his usual performance.
“Because his (Boomwaa) win was so impressive in the Maribyrnong Plate, he may even go better than Direct Charge.”
Laing is yet to decide on an ultimate goal for Boomwaa as a two-year-old but believes that the impressive gelding will have no problem stepping up in distance if he were to contest a race like the Group 1 Sires Produce Stakes (1400m) or Group 1 Champagne Stakes (1600m) during the Sydney Autumn Racing Carnival.
“Looking at his action he will probably run a mile; he is a big striding horse,” Liang said.
“Watching him in the Maribyrnong Plate; the last couple of hundred when Vlad said go on him at Flemington, he hasn’t quickened but just lengthened.
“1400 to a mile shouldn’t trouble him.”
