Racing
Tulloch Lodge dominate first Sydney 2YO trials
Tulloch Lodge and first-season sires stand tall at first official 2YO trials in Sydney.
Tulloch Lodge has made a habit of dominating the first official two-year-old trials of the season in Sydney and Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott were again to fore at Monday's 2025 set on Randwick's Kensington track.
Waterhouse and Bott were responsible for the winners of four of the five 850-metre trials for colts and geldings and another two for the fillies, including the two fastest of each gender.
Too Darn Hot filly Shiki set the morning's benchmark time of 49.46secs in a strong half-length win over the Bjorn Baker-trained Better Off Alone in the last of the four trials for the girls.
"She's shown an abundance of natural speed in everything she's done and it's almost been trying to harness her throughout the preparation," Bott said of Shiki, a $420,000 Magic Millions Gold Coast purchase.
"She tends to get up on her toes a little bit, but today she was really good and measured throughout the trial.
"I think that'll be a nice positive experience for her and I think she'll go the right way off the back of that.
"There's plenty of improvement to come. You'll see in her coat she will have paraded still a bit woolly, so in a couple of weeks' time I'm sure she'll present well and go the right way."
Monday's trials are traditionally the key guide to Sydney's first juvenile races of the season – the Breeders' Plate and Gimcrack Stakes, both Group 3 event over 1000m – which will be run at Randwick on October 4.
Waterhouse and Bott's other filly to win was $220,000 yearling Home Invasion, who ran 50.63secs to score by two lengths in the first fillies' trial.
Home Invasion made it back-to-back wins for wins for Gold Coast-sourced products of boom freshman sire Home Affairs, who is the sire of I'm Ya Huckleberry, a $400,000 yearling who ran 49.54secs in a 2-1/2-length win in Trial 1.
His time was bettered by 0.01secs by another youngster by a high-profile first-season sire, Stay Inside colt Eviction Notice, a $380,000 Magic Millions youngster who powered home by 7-3/4 lengths and ended the day with the fastest time for the boys.
"They've been very similar horses all the way through," Bott said of I'm Ya Huckleberry and Eviction Notice.
"They're two colts that have just been very natural and they've done their work very easily at home.
"We wanted to see what they were like under that little bit more pressure today, being tested, and I thought they both responded really well.
"It's hard to split them, but they're both lovely types that you'd think show some nice improvement off the back of today."
Waterhouse and Bott also saw Semana's half-brother Knightsbridge, a son of Farnan who cost $750,000 at Magic Millions, edge out stablemate Our Emperor in 50.22secs, while Hellbent's $100,000 Inglis Classic colt Revengeance dug deep late to win the final trial in 50.38secs.
The other trainers to win multiple trials were Mitchell and Desiree Kearney, who won the second fillies' trial with Oh Yes She Did, a daughter of Yes Yes Yes who ran 50.58secs, while later I Am Invincible colt Iambubb won in almost identical time (50.57secs).
Oh Yes She Did and Iambubb were both sourced from the Inglis Classic Sale by Springy's Prestige Racing, for $240,000 and $270,000 respectively.
Baker won the day's other trial, with Zoustar filly Masvingo, a $580,000 Magic Millions yearling who looked to have a bit up her sleeve winning Trial 6 in 50.22secs.
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