Tulloch Lodge co-trainers Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott can claim back to back wins in the Listed $150,000 Smithfield RSL Club Rosebud (1100m) if their smart colt Siege Of Quebec can remain unbeaten at Rosehill on Saturday.
Siege Of Quebec, above, can make it back to back wins in the Rosebud for Tulloch Lodge. Photo by Steve Hart.
The Waterhouse and Bott trained Thronum led all of the way to win the Rosebud last year and the front running Siege Of Quebec has been well supported in early betting at Ladbrokes.com.au indicating he could secure the same result.
“It’d certainly be nice to pick the race up again,” Bott told the Racing New South Wales News Desk.
“He has a little bit of time between races now to freshen up and get that speed back into his legs for the 1100m. The horse does have a very good turn of foot and we’ll see it again on Saturday,” Bott said.
“He is well weighted against those horses that have already proven themselves at the top level. He is a horse on the up and has the advantage of race fitness so it looks an ideal starting point for his Golden Rose campaign.
“He hasn’t had to do as much as he is race fit so we’ve just ticked him over, keeping him happy and keeping him sound.”
The lightly raced Siege Of Quebec has only been to the races twice for two wins and after breaking his maiden status on the Beaumont track at Newcastle on June 27 went to Rosehill for a win in a two year old Handicap on July 15.
Bott said the stable made the decision not to rush Siege Of Quebec as a early two year old but rather let the Fastnet Rock colt mature before sending him to the races as a late juvenile and now they are looking forward to seeing him qualify for a place in the Group 1 $1m De Bortoli Wines Golden Rose (1400m) at Rosehill on September 23.
“We’ve give then horse plenty of time to mature and been very patient with him. He showed plenty of natural talent early on and we took him down to Melbourne for a Flemington jump out early in the spring but decided to give him more time as he was still maturing physically,” Bott said.
“We always knew we had a nice horse on our hands and wanted to look after him. We put him away in favour of producing him as a late two-year-old and roll into the spring as an early three-year-old.”
Tim Clark takes over from Tommy Berry on Siege Of Quebec who has drawn the rails in the eight horse field and in early betting for the Rosebud on Thursday afternoon the colt was sharing favouritism with the Gerald Ryan trained Menari at $2.90.
On the third line of betting is the James Cummings trained Trekking at $5.50 ahead of Mark Newnham’s Diamond Tathagata at $10.
Siege Of Quebec is currently a $21 chance for the Golden Rose but a win in the Rosebud could see him dramatically shot up the market order at Ladbrokes.com.au
