Lindsay Park’s head trainer David Hayes is now looking to qualify Super Titus for the 2019 Caulfield Cup after the European import scored a gutsy win in the Listed $140,000 ZircoDATA Heatherlie Stakes (1700m) at Caulfield today.
Super Titus, above, scored a tough win in the Heatherlie Stakes at Caulfield. Photo by Ultimate Racing Photos.
Hayes has targeted the Group 3 $160,000 East Malvern Bendigo Bank MRC Foundation Cup (2000m), formerly the Naturalism Stakes, at Caulfield on September 21 which is an exempt free race for the Group 1 $5.15m Stella Artois Caulfield Cup (2400m) at Caulfield on October 19.
Hayes was very impressed with the way that Super Titus was able to find the line to score his first win on Australian soil after travelling three wide for the entire trip and is expecting further improvement from the promising stayer.
“I thought this horse did a great job because he raced without cover for the whole race and travelled with class into it and second up had enough stamina and hold on and win a good race,” Hayes said.
“I am really excited I think he will just get better as the races get longer because his English form is over a mile and a half plus.”
“He will run in the Naturalism. He just has to get his rating up a bit to be sure that he gets in it, but I think winning a Stakes race will probably be enough to get in the Naturalism and then into the Bart Cummings which are the two qualifiers to hopefully get him into the Melbourne Cup and the Caulfield Cup with not a lot of weight.”
The David and Tom Hayes and Tom Dabernig trained Super Titus, with Jye McNeil in the saddle, was sent out as the equal second pick at $6 and had a good enough finish to score by three quarters of a length from Captain Cook ($7.50) with Etymology ($12) a brave third.
The Anthony Freedman trained Steel Prince ($6) with Damien Oliver aboard caught the eye with a solid fourth while the $5.50 favourite Guizot wound up in eighth position.
Super Titus is now marked at $51 at Ladbrokes.com.au, in from $101, for the Caulfield Cup.
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