The Gai Waterhouse trained Fast Clip will face a red hot field in the Toorak Handicap
After a quiet autumn by her own standards Gai Waterhouse is back in fantastic shape this spring with around a dozen horses at her Melbourne stables.
Of those there are two top liners running at Caulfield tomorrow in the form of Fast Clip in the Toorak Handicap and Descarado in the Caulfield Stakes.
Waterhouse says she’s thrilled with the progress of both horses and is expecting the duo to feature prominently in their respective races.
The toughest assignment though has to belong to Fast Clip that faces a red hot field in the 2011 Toorak Handicap.
He’ll have to deal with the likes of King Mufhasa, Wall Street, Toorak Toff, Woorim, Torio’s Quest and Blackie just to name a few.
He comes in off progressive form though with a third first up and a tight second last start.
“I’m much happier with him now then when he first started his prep,” Waterhouse said.
“I don’t know if he’s a Group 1 horse it remains to be seen but I’ve always had the Toorak in mind since last year.
“I thought if he’s happy enough after he came off his second to King Lionheart I’d dodge the Epsom and come down here.”
Fast Clip hasn’t drawn favourably with marble 10 but Waterhouse says that’s far less of a concern than this being his first start at Caulfield.
“I don’t worry much about barriers, the biggest thing is if he gets on his Melbourne leg and copes with Caulfield,” she said.
Fast Clip will also be wearing blinkers in tomorrow’s race in an indication that they’ll try to work forward from the outside draw.
In terms of Descarado on paper he needs to make some real improvement after languishing in second last first up.
To be fair that was over 1500m though and he gets out to 2000m in the Caulfield Stakes tomorrow.
Waterhouse says she’s been delighted with his progress to date and she’s confident he’ll win this campaign, she’s just not sure when.
“I’m over the moon with Decarado,” she said.
“It’s a bit hard to pick this horse…he’s a very cool dude and he’s enjoying himself.
” I think he’ll run a super race tomorrow…he’s a horse that can go into these races with a few runs under his belt.”
As for the progress of More Joyous who finished third behind Sepoy in the Manikato Stakes, Waterhouse says she’s making improvements as they continue to tick her over.
“She’s done very well, the valley the other night was very fast, Sepoy was very dominant but I thought she made ground and she ran very well,” she said.
“I’d love to see her go to the Crystal Mile back at the Valley and then on to the Mackinnon.”
