Tim Clark says French import Eliyass has the scope to make his presence felt in the spring after dominating at his Australian debut in the Lord Mayors Cup at Randwick.
While many former European horses take a preparation to acclimatise to local conditions, the five-year-old made an immediate impact.
Trailing the solid tempo set by stablemate and race favourite Sir Lucan, Eliyass ($7.50 in betting) cruised up to his rivals in the straight and put them to the sword, streaking clear to score by 1-3/4 lengths over Hopeful ($8) with Williamsburg ($4.40) another 1-1/4 lengths away third.
It was the winner’s first start since September and Clark praised the training performance of Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott to have him fit enough for the 2000-metre Lord Mayors Cup journey, especially in the heavy conditions.
“He got himself into a good spot just back off the speed, so he had an economical run throughout and when he peeled out from the 600, he towed into the race nicely and won with some authority,” Clark said.
“You’d like to think there is a bit more to come from him in the future and he could potentially have a really light campaign now and a quick turnaround to the spring.
“You never know what races he could end up in.
“Up to a mile-and-a-half (2400m) will be no problem for him. There are plenty of options for him and they do a great job with their horses, so they’ll find the right races.”
Eliyass is building an impressive strikerate with Saturday’s win his seventh success from nine starts, while he has finished runner-up on the other two occasions.
Tulloch Lodge representative Neil Paine said the stable came into Saturday’s race quietly confident with both their runners and while Sir Lucan disappointed, Eliyass signalled he was a horse of the future.
“I thought we’d get the quinella, one won and the other one ran fifty-sixth,” Paine quipped.
“Gai and Adrian are going to have a lot of fun with him. If you have a look at his form, it is sensational over in France.
“The stable was a little bit confident with him today, even though we had the favourite in the race, there really wasn’t much between them.
“He was the unknown and if he produced, you knew what he could do with them, and he’s done that today.”