Committed to a long-term plan to send promising 3-year-old Superstorm east to Melbourne for the G1 Australian Guineas at Flemington, Western Australian owner Bob Peters is under no illusions of the quality he will tackle in that race.
This year's 3-year-old crop is considered the deepest in many years highlighted by Guineas bound pair Alligator Blood (All Too Hard) and Catalyst (NZ) (Darci Brahma {NZ}) who fought out a thrilling G3 CS Hayes S. on Saturday.
At Ascot, Superstorm confirmed his spot in the $1 million feature on February 29 with his impressive victory in the Listed Challenge S.
Peters’ plan was always to set the gelding for the Australian Guineas should he do as expected and win last Saturday, which he did by a widening 1.9l.
“I've got two options. I could have him run over here in a Listed race over 1600 metres in two weeks or he could run in a Group 1 race in two weeks,” he said. “We might as well target the Group 1 race and we will just see how he goes.”
“We might as well target the Group 1 race and we will just see how he goes.” - Bob Peters
Peters is far from confident that Superstorm will be able to match it with the top line Eastern States 3-year-olds but has seen significant improvement in the horse over his short break since running fourth in last year's G1 Kingston Town Classic in December.
“He's just been very green. He just needed a bit of racing. His trial this time was very good and he ran very truly and his run on Saturday was similar. He is starting to understand what racing is about. It has just been the improvement in his racing manners that I’ve seen.”
Bob Peters has seen significant improvement in Superstorm since December
Peters is wary that Superstorm hasn't had a decent spell since his debut last August and sees the trip to Melbourne as an extension of his recent campaign, with nothing planned beyond the next run.
“He only had a short break here at the farm and he's been back. It's a fairly long campaign and we will know where we are after the Guineas run. I haven't even looked at the calendar for anything else,” he said.
“I made the decision that if he won the Challenge S. on Saturday we’d go and if he didn't we’d go back to the paddock. Once you make a decision you tend to stick to it.”
“I made the decision that if he won the Challenge S. on Saturday we’d go and if he didn't we’d go back to the paddock." - Bob Peters
Alligator Blood and Catalyst dominate betting for the Australian Guineas with Chenier (Medaglia D'Oro {USA}), who was third behind that pair on Saturday, the only other runner in single figures. Superstorm has been supported into $10 fourth elect.
Superstorm
Peters was certainly impressed with what he saw from his key rivals in the CS Hayes S.
“It’s definitely a very good crop of 3-year-olds. It was a terrific race on Saturday especially with those two going head-to- head. It looked to me like the horse that ended up running second was going to win most of the way up the straight. They are both very good horses,” he said.
Family's profile builds
Superstorm’s win on Saturday makes him the third stakes winner from Peters’ former mare Stormy Nova (Metal Storm {Fr}).
She has also produced multiple stakes winner Cosmic Storm (Street Sense {USA}) and the sister to Superstorm in Mikimoto, whose promising career was cut short after just seven starts which featured four wins, the best of which was in the Listed Burgess Queen S.
“The full sister to this fellow, we were a bit unfortunate as things went wrong with her and the older half-sister Cosmic Storm was very good to us too,” Peters said
Peters may have sold Stormy Nova in 2017 but he's well-placed to continue breeding with the family with the two above-mentioned mares having already begun their breeding careers.
Cosmic Storm foaled a filly by Maurice (Jpn) last spring and returned to the Arrowfield Stud stallion again while Mikimoto visited Coolmore’s No Nay Never (USA) in 2019.
The sister to Superstorm, Mikimoto, was served by Coolmore's No Nay Never (USA) in 2019
“It's not one of my six or so really good families, at the top level, but she's starting to prove that she's been good and having the two daughters out of her and in foal at the moment is a good position to be in,” Peters said.
Power searches for glory
Superstorm won't be alone when he arrives in Melbourne on Tuesday morning with the Grant and Alana Williams-trained stablemate Regal Power (Pierro) also travelling and set to make his Eastern States debut in the G2 Peter Young S. at Caulfield this Saturday.
His ultimate goal is the G1 Australian Cup on March 7, a race Peters won with Old Comrade (Old Spice) in 2002.
"He'll run at Caulfield. The only concern I have is that Caulfield can be a tricky track for horses having their first run there. I feel with his style of racing, Flemington will suit him a lot better,” he said.
Bob Peters believes Regal Power will be better suited to Flemington during his East Coast campaign
“It's a good way to start him off and go from the 1800 metres there into the 2000 metres of the Australian Cup at Flemington.”
Regal Power, the G3 WA Derby winner from last year, claimed the G1 Railway S. in November and also won the G2 Ted Van Heemst S. at Ascot in December.
He is a brother in blood to Arcadia Queen (Pierro), who won the 2018 Kingston Town Classic. The pair hail from one of those elite families mentioned earlier as two of an amazing eight stakes winners Peters has sourced from either the blue hen Antique (Metal Storm {Fr}) or her daughters.
