Waterhouse-Bott stable eye breakthrough win in Inglis Nursery

3 months ago 8

By Craig Kerry

December 11, 2025 — 5.00pm

Trainer Adrian Bott is wary of a potential wet track but believes Ole Kirk colt Elio is well-placed to give the stable a first victory in the $400,000 Inglis Nursery (1000m) on Saturday at Randwick.

Elio ($3.50) was holding favouritism in an open edition of the two-year-old feature for Inglis graduates, after closing off strongly for fourth in the Max Lees Classic (900m) and trialling well either side of the debut run.

He finished 2.68 lengths off front-running winner Seeiaye at Newcastle and Bott believed he was building nicely for Saturday’s race, where he has gate five of 11 and Adam Hyeronimus to ride.

“Nine hundred was probably a bit shorter than what he wanted,” Bott said of the Max Lees Classic on November 15.

“He only went in there off the back of the one barrier trial as well. He was always going in there with some good improvement to come here because of that.

“Obviously, the thought was to try and get him qualified for this race, and the benefit of fitness and race experience, that should hopefully put him in a positive position for Saturday’s race.

“He finished off well and I thought it was a nice effort under the circumstances at Newcastle. He had a tick-over barrier trial in between runs. He looked good there at Canterbury, so he’s going there well-prepared.”

Bott and co-trainer Gai Waterhouse, who paid, along with Kestrel Thoroughbreds, $250,000 for the Ole Kirk-Iconista colt, are prolific buyers at yearling sales and winners of two-year-old races, but the Nursery has eluded them.

“He’s a nice stallion who looks to be very promising,” Bott said of Ole Kirk.

“And he just looked to be a pretty natural, forward-type himself at the sale. He’s only a neat style of horse. I’m not sure how deep we’ll push into the campaign, but he looks to be coping with everything really well at the stage.

“I just tried to have a bit of a plan to get to this race, target that and we’ll see how we go off the back of it.”

As for Elio handling a potential wet track on Saturday, Bott said: “That’d be very much an unknown. We haven’t really had any opportunity to test him on it, in any sort of trials or at home or anything like that, so it would be very interesting to see.”

It was the opposite for Collect Your Cash ($7), which races in the sixth, a benchmark 88 handicap (1800m). He was a last-start winner on a heavy Kembla track and has four victories and a placing in seven wet-track attempts.

“He loves the heavy, so any rain would be very much welcome for him,” Bott said.

“He was very effective first time and probably should be suited better again by a slight step up in trip. He’s got to carry a bit of weight, but there’s plenty to like about that win the other day.”