Cox Plate fancy Pornichet is pleasing the Waterhouse stable on the track as he begins his preparation towards the major Melbourne Spring Carnival races.
Pornichet is progressing nicely as he prepares for the 2015 Cox Plate a Moonee Valley. Photo by Daniel Costello.
Trainer Gai Waterhouse is starting to step up the workload of Pornichet who quickened up over the last 200m on Monday morning at the end of some three quarter pace.
“Pornichet keeps ticking along nicely,” Waterhouse wrote on her website.
“He jogged over 1400m coming home his last 200m in 12.2 seconds. Steve O’Halloran (work rider) was happy with the effort.”
Pornichet showed his class with a spectacular win in the Group 1 $650,000 The Bundaberg Rum Doomben Cup (2000m) at Doomben on May 9 and Waterhouse immediately declared that the French Import would be a force during the Spring Carnival.
Waterhouse had no hesitation in saying that she would nominate Pornichet for both the Group 1 $3m Cox Plate (2040m) at Moonee Valley in October and the Group 1 $6m Emirates Melbourne Cup (3200m) at Flemington on the first Tuesday in November.
“I can tell you all right now that the former Frenchman will be nominated for the Cox Plate, and he also will be nominated for the Melbourne Cup,” Waterhouse wrote in her blog.
Waterhouse was full of superlatives following Pornichet’s Doomben Cup win and expects the rising five year old to be even better in the Spring.
“This was a fantastic win from a brilliant racehorse; a horse that I have only scratched the surface of at this stage,” Waterhouse wrote.
“It takes a very special horse to gap a Group One field as Pornichet did.”
“He found the front very early, but was still strong on the line. The turn of foot the entire displayed is a perfect example of what the European bred middle horses need should they be successful in Australia.”
“I have to train speed into the legs of these imports. Pornichet was always a classy middle distance horse in the making, however he needed to learn my way of doing things. He has now clearly acclimatised to the Lady Trainer’s way of doing things and a big spring preparation lay ahead.”
Waterhouse has had plenty of success with European imports including Fiorente who went on to win the 2013 Melbourne Cup, but she said Pornichet still has a way to get to be his equal.
“He is not Fiorente just yet, but he is certainly doing everything right as we speak,” Waterhouse wrote.
Pornichet is on the fourth line of betting for the Cox Plate at $10 with Ladbrokes.com.au who have the super Hong Kong galloper Able Friend at the top of the market order at $7.
Godolphin’s weight for age star Contributer is on the second line of betting at $8 just ahead of Queen Elizabeth Stakes winner Criterion at $9.
While in early Melbourne Cup betting Pornichet is listed as a $34 chance.
