Valiant Spirit has announced himself as a serious Derby prospect with an outstanding start-to-finish win in the Group 2 Autumn Classic (1800m) at Caulfield this afternoon.
Trainer Daniel Williams revealed that there is only one way to ride Valiant Spirit – take him to the lead and allow him to bowl along, and that is exactly what jockey Regan Bayliss elected to do in the Autumn Classic.
Setting a reasonable tempo in transit for the classy field of three-year-olds, the Duporth gelding kicked clear of his rivals rounding into the final straighten and went for home; tiring in the final 100m but already having opened a gap of several lengths to easily beat race favourites Astoria ($3.50) and Mr So And So ($5).
A $16 chance in our Autumn Classic market prior to jump, Valiant Spirit will now be set on a course towards the Group 1 Australian Derby (2400m) in Sydney during The Championships.
“It’s the only thing he knows how to do – he just likes to bowl along in front and if he’s rated right, he’s just so strong at the finish,” Williams said after saddling his first stakes winner.
“He’s just an awesome galloper. He loves what he does and you saw that today.
“He’s been feeling really well and 2000m is probably his best trip, 2000m plus, but the 1800m today was just sharp enough for him and I thought he was a good chance.
“Its always been the plan to go to a Derby and I guess on that, we’re looking at Sydney. We’ll just see how he pulls up.
“There’s a couple of routes to get there obviously and a couple of pretty tough races, but we’ll just see how he pulls up. When I looked up there and he was running twelve-twos and twelves-threes I just thought he’d be so hard to beat.”
Bayliss was instrumental in Valiant Spirit’s win in the Autumn Classic, but was quick to throw all the praise on Williams’ training performance and the quality of the horse.
“It’s a terrific result for Dan. He’s just a great bloke and it just proves what a fine horseman he is – he’s got this horse here in terrific order,” Bayliss said.
“I hopped on his back on Tuesday morning and he was just rock-hard fit and a lot of other horses were having their first go at the 1800m today.
“We had a beautiful smooth run, I made sure he just clicked up from about the 600m and made it a staying test, and he prevailed.”
Valiant Spirit has firmed slightly ($31 into $26) in our 2018 Australian Derby market following this afternoon’s impressive win in the Autumn Classic.