Written by Paul Vettise
Cover image courtesy of Trish Dunell
The Oaks Stud is heading into unfamiliar territory with its outstanding 3-year-old Catalyst (Darci Brahma {NZ}) and under no illusions about the challenge ahead of the star New Zealand 3-year-old.
Bred and raced by the Cambridge farm’s principal Dick Karreman, Catalyst has proved himself the best of his age group and sex with five wins on the bounce culminating in a runaway victory in the G1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas.
The Clayton Chipperfield-trained gelding is now closing in on a Melbourne campaign and he added momentum at Matamata on Tuesday when he breezed home in an open 1000 metre trial under regular rider Troy Harris with Te Akau Shark (NZ) (Rip Van Winkle {Ire}) coasting into second.
“We all know how good Alligator Blood and Super Seth and those horses are, but we’re absolutely confident he’s going to be competitive,” The Oaks Stud’s General and Racing Manager Rick Williams said.
“Whether that’s good enough to win we don’t know because he’s never been tested. He’s an exciting horse.”
Catalyst will resume in the G3 Henley Park Mr Tiz Trophy at Ellerslie on Saturday week before crossing the Tasman.
“Whether that’s good enough to win we don’t know because he’s never been tested. He’s an exciting horse.” – Rick Williams
“He’ll run in the CS Hayes S. and the Australian Guineas and we’ve nominated him for the All-Star Mile and that’s subject to form and subject to getting enough votes,” Williams said.
A decision on who will ride Catalyst in Australia has yet to be locked in.
“We haven’t given that any consideration. Troy is riding him in New Zealand and after the Mr Tiz we’ve got three weeks into the CS Hayes,” Williams said.
“It’s one step at a time and we aimed at the 2000 Guineas and got it and now we’ve come up with a really good program for him. Whether we use an Australian jockey or a New Zealand jockey I don’t know.”
Catalyst (NZ) ridden by Troy Harris | Image courtesy of Trish Dunell
The Catalyst camp was delighted with his trial effort at Matamata where he sat in fourth spot and cruised to the post.
“We couldn’t be any happier with the way he’s coming up this year. He looked good and was well held and so was Te Akau Shark of course,” Williams said. “We trialled him without the blinkers on and we’ll leave them off for the Mr Tiz.
“I don’t think he needs them, we only threw them on after his first start because we couldn’t work out how he had got beaten. I think it was the kick-back at Te Rapa and he’d never experienced that before.”
Catalyst suffered his sole defeat at his 2-year-old in April and has won untouched ever since.
