3 minute read

Trainer and jockey quotes after the Group 3 Mullins Lawyers Fred Best Classic at Eagle Farm on Saturday won by Hawaii Five Oh.

Race Result:

1st: Hawaii Five Oh (Nash Rawiller/Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott) - $4
2nd: Yellow Brick (Ben Thompson/Tony & Maddysen Sears) - $2.20F
3rd: End Assembly (James Orman/Mark Currie) - $61

Winning Time: 1:22.82 Last 600m: 34.85

Margins: ¾L x ¾L

Hawaii Five Oh is off to The Stradbroke, the blueblood scores the Fred Best Classic in great fashion!@nashhot at his clinical best in the saddle for @GaiWaterhouse1 and Adrian Bott.@BaramulStud pic.twitter.com/OabWSm29O8

— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) May 27, 2023

Winning Trainer: Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott (Adrian speaking)

The Q22 next: "That was the plan coming into today. He won nicely and has given us the confidence to push on to that race.

"He gets in well in the weights and should take improvement out of today.

"He's certainly a lovely horse. A beautiful physical type and imposing as we saw in the yard. Good to see him race up to it."

The ride: "Nash was confident throughout the run, you could see. He went out there open minded where he was going to be. He showed really good gate speed today and put himself up. Nash was able to let him find a nice rhythm and was able to get out at the right time and he was strong late."

Penny has dropped: "Certainly has. We saw that last start and just the way he's racing now, he's racing with a bit of confidence and it is fantastic to see."

"We're in a fortunate position to train such a lovely horse. He's always had the ability. He had a great grounding before arrival. We can captitalise on that hard work done."

Less of a gap between runs: "With that I think he'll have to naturally improve. He takes a bit of work in racing to get fit so he'll improve nicely off that."

Winning Jockey: Nash Rawiller

"He's the real deal. I'm proud to see what he's doing now. He's taken a little while to mature. There was something a little bit special to begin with and full credit to Gai and Adrian. Since he's gone there he's switched on mentally and you can see physically he's a beast."

"Michael Freedman originally had him and really looked after him. Gave him the time he needed but he's really gone to the next level.

"He's making his own luck now. He sprung out of the gates today and he was straight into cruise control for me.

"We were following the right horse and it was just a matter of when to let him go."