3 minute read

Gai Waterhouse is set to ramp up her Magic Millions assault at Wyong on Thursday with classy filly Echo Gal poised to make a successful return to racing.

Waterhouse, who landed back in Sydney on Wednesday from a skiing holiday in Colarado, has Echo Gal primed for a first-up win in the $100,000 Wyong Magic Millions 3YO Stakes ((1200m), a race that will have a big bearing on the make-up of the $1 million Magic Millions Guineas (1400m) at the Gold Coast on January 10.

Echo Gal is currently tenth on the order of entry for the Gold Coast race with prizemoney of $97,075 and is assured of a start. Wyong rivals Cyclone ($110,235), Tetsuko ($62,420) and Victorian winner Murt The Flirt ($60,000) also sit inside the top 16 but the other seven three-year-olds in the field must win to secure a certain berth on January 10.

They include Next Level and Kokomo, who are not nominated for the Gold Coast race but can be included as late entries before December 31 if their connections elect to pay a $275 fee.

Waterhouse has booked Tommy Berry to ride Echo Gal in the Wyong Magic Millions, a race she first won with Ulladulla in its inaugural year in 2006 and again last year with her Group One star Sweet Idea.

Sweet Idea went from Wyong to win the Magic Millions Guineas at her next start and Waterhouse believes Echo Gal can do the same.

The Stratum filly is already the winner of three of her nine starts including two first-up wins at Warwick Farm and Canterbury and Waterhouse’s racing manager Adrian Bott says she is in the right form to add to that record on Thursday.

“We have been very pleased with Echo Gal’s preparation. She was really good in her recent trial and her work indicates she is ready to go,” Bott said.

“She’s nice and fresh and we know she goes well first-up.”

Echo Gal has been off the scene since the early spring when she finished second to quality sprinter Kuro in the Listed Heritage Stakes (1100m) at Rosehill before finishing fifth in the G1 Flight Stakes (1600m) at Randwick on October 4.

Waterhouse then rested Echo Gal to focus on the Magic Millions with the filly showing she was in good form with a sharp barrier trial win over 1050m at Randwick on December 1.

Waterhouse will also start Chloe’s Comet in the $200,000 Wyong Magic Millions Classic (1100m) for two-year-olds on Thursday as her test for a trip to the Gold Coast for the $2 million MM Classic (1200m) on January 10.

Waterhouse has won the Wyong MM Classic three times with Pulsator, She’s Meaner and Bright Expectations since it was first run in 2003.

The race’s early winners were the exceptional pair Not A Single Doubt and Snitzel and it is now established as the key NSW lead-up race to the Gold Coast with Karuta Queen and Unencumbered completing the Wyong-Gold Coast double since 2010.

Waterhouse has a strong team set for the Magic Millions race day on January 10.

Carriages, Right Of Way, Ready Already and Chloe’s Comet are her top four for the MM Classic and she has Echo Gal and Loveitt set for the MM Guineas.