Dean Watt has warned that Am Me – the first horse Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Maktoum has raced with a syndication firm – will have to be “every bit as good as we think she is” to keep her winning run going.
The sprinting star is trying to preserve her unbeaten summer campaign at Royal Randwick on Saturday but faces a four-kilogram weight rise from her last-start win in the same grade.
Dynamic Syndications boss Watt, who forked out $210,000 to buy the I Am Invincible filly as a yearling, was left stunned when I Am Me’s rating was increased eight points after trouncing her rivals at Rosehill last start.
“This horse has improved,” Watt said. “I don’t have any fear of 1200 because I think it will run 1400. I think it’s certainly stakes class and it has the ability to get to the pointy end of stakes class.
“We had her nominated for Saturday at Flemington, but had we gone down to Flemington I believe in my bones whatever beats it wins, and we would have run second and picked up black type. But it was only 1000 metres and we were going against our true plan.
“Our true plan is the Canterbury Sprint on New Year’s Day. But we’re not well weighted in this race on Saturday. The reality is she’s going to have to be as good as we think she is to offset what the handicapper has done to allow us to win.”
I Am Me is chasing a third straight win this campaign.Credit:Getty
None of this has stopped bookmakers from crunching down on the Ciaron Maher and David Eustace-trained I Am Me, which was a $1.95 favourite with Sportsbet on Thursday.
I Am Me won’t be expected to dominate from the front as she did last start given that Spaceboy and Mr Mosaic have drawn to spear across the field and find the front.
But Watt’s primary concern was that she would be giving second favourite Dehorned Unicorn ($4.20) six-and-a-half kilograms after Zac Lloyd’s claim. They were the only two horses who were in single figures in early betting.
James McDonald will ride I Am Me due to Tommy Berry taking an indefinite break from the saddle, and Watt said he had always had faith that I Am Me would develop into a racetrack star.
“I think it’s the dearest I’d paid for a filly to syndicate,” Watt said.
“She was sold out very quickly and the Sheikh purchased 15 per cent back in. That’s the first time he’s had a share in a horse with a syndication company around the world. That made us feel good. We buy on genetics. That’s the honest answer.
“We did have a problem early in the piece when she developed a stress fracture in her pelvis because she was going so fast. It tends to happen to the good ones.
“It’s a hard race and we respect many of the opposition. I don’t think she’s bashed up anything yet. She’s been very well-placed. Now she’s badly placed we’ve got to see her true colours come through.”
It will be just the second time I Am Me has raced at Royal Randwick. On the first occasion, she finished down the track behind Fangirl in the Reginal Allen Quality as a three-year-old filly earlier this year.
$1 million race every four days in 2023
Australia’s prize money boom will see a race worth $1 million or more be run on average every four days next year as the country tries to maintain its status as the leading jurisdiction for group 1 races.
On the eve of sales season in which Gold Coast’s Magic Millions and Sydney’s Inglis Easter extravaganzas take centre stage, Aushorse has released figures which show average prize money per race ($46,000) is higher than the United States, France, Ireland and the United Kingdom.
The Aushorse investor’s guide also printed statistics which claimed Australia had the most races in the top-rated group 1 events in five of the last seven years.
Mr Brightside wins the Doncaster Mile, one of the million-dollar races propping up Australian racing.Credit:Getty
“Australia is enjoying a golden age when it comes to the thoroughbred industry,” Aushorse chief executive Tom Reilly said.
“We have a great funding model that gives owners a real chance to get a return on their investment and the sport has tremendous backing across society.
“When we published [the investor’s guide] last year I had three prominent syndicators tell me they sent it straight out to all their clients as it made such a compelling case for racehorse ownership and I’ve had many similar comments from trainers.”
NSW’s prize money boom has been the driver behind a 92 per cent increase in stakes money in the past decade.
Last week’s The Ingham was worth a staggering $2 million, up from just $250,000 in 2020, and Saturday city off-season races will still be worth $150,000 on the weekend.
“I get a lot of feedback from people around the world commenting on the investor’s guide, it certainly gets a lot of cut through,” Aushorse chairman Antony Thompson said.
“If you’re investing in a significant scale in the global bloodstock industry, then the guide makes clear that you really need to be involved here.”
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