3 minute read
Perth trainer arrived in July with a small team of horses to prepare for the Victorian spring carnival.
Perth trainer Grant Williams has taken a lot out of his first long-term stint on the eastern seaboard preparing a team of horses for the Victorian spring carnival.
Williams, who trains in partnership with his wife Alana at Karnup in Western Australia, arrived in July with a small team of horses to prepare for the spring.
While Regal Power has fallen by the wayside with a lung infection and Arcadia Queen has had to overcome a foot abscess that had ruled her out of an earlier run, the Williams' have also tasted their share of success.
Based at the Sutton Grange training complex of Brent Stanley, the Williams training partnership has already won three races, from 11 starters, and sits inside the top 10 on the Victorian metropolitan training table in the early part of the season.
The stable's record could have been enhanced following a further two seconds at Flemington last Saturday courtesy of Arcadia Queen and Windstorm.
Williams said it had been a great learning experience and one he hopes will set the stable up for future raids on the spring carnival.
"If we're going to bring the horses over early like this year then we need to bring them over fit and ready," Williams said.
"Otherwise you really can get found out.
"That's been a key learning point."
Williams said he thought Windstorm had taken more out of his first-up fourth at Caulfield on August 29 than what he actually had ahead of Saturday's placing.
"I wasn't disappointed with him, (but) I just need to work him harder now," Williams said.
"So being here in and around Melbourne racing, it has taken a little bit of time to adjust, but things are going along quite well."
Williams said one of the biggest things he has found between racing in Melbourne and Perth is the speed at which races are run.
"The tempo here is much different and you have to do it at both ends," he said.
Yet to open their Group 1 status in Victoria, the Williams' will attempt to break that hoodoo with either Showmanship and Superstorm in the $500,000 Group 1 Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield on Saturday.
The Williams' pair are among 24 horses nominated for the feature handicap, one of four 'black type' races on Saturday's program.
Last year's winner Begood Toya Mother and runner-up Age Of Chivalry are set to renew their rivalry on Saturday but will be pitted against last start Memsie Stakes winner Behemoth and Blue Diamond Stakes winner Tagaloa, the only three-year-old in the Group 1 contest.
The final field with barrier draw will be announced on Wednesday.
