Tough Rosehill win sets Steel Will on path to spring features
Steel Will secured a hard-fought victory at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday, overcoming a tight winning margin and a less-than-spectacular finish that had punters on edge.
The colt displayed admirable tenacity under pressure, finding his best stride at the finish to win the Kia Ora Bloodlines to Headlines Handicap over 1300 metres.
Trainer Chris Waller, a Hall of Fame inductee, spoke post-race about his ambitious plans for Steel Will during the upcoming spring carnival.
"Steel Will is a nice, progressive horse," Waller remarked. "He is well bred and it is always good to have horses with (owner) Sir Owen Glenn and he has a good one here."
Sent out the $1.65 favourite, Steel Will, under the guidance of champion jockey James McDonald, defeated Savvy Diamond ($13) by a neck, with Plagiarism ($5.50) a further three-quarters of a length away in third.
The trainer admitted that starting Steel Will in a Sydney Saturday class race, following a maiden win at Wyong less than two weeks prior, was not ideal.
"He was on a quick back-up and the rain has just come so this was a stepping stone for the colt," Waller explained. "It's good to get some prizemoney in the back as it will make it easier to get him into the better races."
Steel Will is a three-year-old colt, a son of I Am Invincible and out of Pittsburgh Flyer, who also produced the talented mare September Run, a dual Group 1 winner for Waller in the Coolmore Stud Stakes and William Reid Stakes.
"I trained his sister September Run and she might have been the Champion Three-year-old of her year," Waller recalled. "Bearing in mind Steel Will is September Run's brother, we will probably keep him to shorter races.
"We will look at either the Run To The Rose here or go to Melbourne for the Poseidon Stakes at Flemington. If we are thinking of the Coolmore it would be good to give him some experience up the Flemington straight.
"Steel Will has got the breeding and he's got the looks so he has a lot going for him."
Punters keen to explore the racing betting markets would have experienced a tense conclusion before the favourite ultimately prevailed.
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