Watson's transition to gelding pays off with continued success

The choice to geld Watson late last year has already yielded positive results, with jockey Tim Clark expressing confidence that the Tulloch Lodge galloper can extend his winning sequence at Randwick.

Having been placed only once in three outings as a juvenile colt, the four-year-old was gelded before his January resumption and promptly recorded two victories at Kembla Grange and Canterbury.

Stepped straight into Group company, the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained runner was not disgraced, finishing fourth to Tempted in the Eskimo Prince Stakes (1200m).

He is set to compete in Saturday's Chandon Handicap (1200m) at Randwick following a midweek win over Clear Proof. Clear Proof subsequently franked the form with a victory at Canterbury on Wednesday, and Clark anticipates Watson will perform well despite a challenging draw in barrier 12.

"His record as a gelding is really good," Clark said.

"It was a good win first-up with improvement to come. He's taking that improvement into the weekend and he's worked very well during the week.

"He'll make his presence felt.

"I also feel the drier the track gets, the better for him."

While Saturday's engagement is at benchmark level, Clark believes Watson has the capacity to advance to better races.

He was four lengths behind Tempted in the Eskimo Prince Stakes, and less than three lengths off the runner-up Napoleonic. Napoleonic has since achieved a placing in the Doomben 10,000 and is slated to be a strong chance in the Group 2 Missile Stakes (1200m) on Saturday.

"He ran really well in that race, and a hot race it was," Clark commented. "With where his rating is at, he can go through the ratings system, get good prizemoney, and if and when the time is right, Gai and Adrian can step him back into a harder race."

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