Tulloch Lodge co-trainer Adrian Bott is expecting Dawn Passage to relish the step up to 1200m in the $2m 2019 Inglis Millennium (1200m) at Warwick Farm on Saturday.
Dawn Passage, above, will appreciate the step up to 1200m in the 2019 Inglis Millennium at Warwick Farm. Photo by Steve Hart.
Dawn Passage was a very impressive debut winner for co-trainers Gai Waterhouse and Bott when he trounced his rivals with a three and a quarter lengths win in a 1000m two year old Handicap at Randwick on Australia Day with Blake Shinn in the saddle.
Shinn brought Dawn Passage from the second half of the field before he overpowered the rest of the field and gets the mount again on the Dawn Approach colt who will jump from barrier seven in the fifteen horse Inglis Millennium field.
“Physically in terms of fitness he was very forward for that first up run, but the improvement to come is from the natural race experience and stepping up to what I feel is more ideal race conditions being at the distance of the 1200m,” Bott said.
“He showed us plenty of potential at home in his trials and this is the race we really wanted to get him to so we only had one chance to qualify him and we really needed to be winning a fortnight ago or at least running second to get in the field.”
“We were confident with his ability to take him to that race.”
“We were probably a little bit taken by how much authority he won with but I guess the way the race panned out with quite a lot of speed and Blake was able to let the race unfold in front of him.”
“He really got him into the perfect position and that is was probably helped him flatter the win a little bit.”
“But it was a great win and he has come off that in great shape and stretching out to the 1200m is probably more to his liking.”
Dawn Passage has been installed as the $3 favourite at Ladbrokes.com.au for the Inglis Millennium just ahead of his main rival Accession at $3.20.
Accession, who has drawn out wide at gate fourteen, has been equally as impressive as Dawn Approach and is a winner of two of his three race starts after scoring second up in the $500,000 Inglis Nursery (1000m) at Randwick on December 15 and then proved superior again with a four and a quarter lengths win in the $125,000 Countdown to Golden Slipper Sprint (1100m) at Rosehill on January 19.
Hugh Bowman was aboard the Chris Waller trained Accession for his initial win at Randwick and finds himself back on top after James McDonald rode him to victory at Rosehill.
