Serious hoof problems have blighted the career of New Zealand-bred seven-year-old My Watchlist, whose future has hung in the balance ever since he arrived in WA in the first week of April 2022.
These problems have threatened to end his career many times, and things didn’t look very bright about a year ago when he had only a half of one of his front feet as trainer Gary Hall snr tried desperately to get the hoof to re-grow properly.
Patience and constant care have enabled My Watchlist to return to action, after several brief comebacks, and the gelding has been most impressive in his current campaign of four starts for four wins in the space of five weeks.
My Watchlist was a $13.60 chance when he began from the inside of the back line on Friday night and Stuart McDonald settled him down in sixth place, four back on the pegs, while Better Eclipse ($4) was setting the pace after he had begun from barrier No. 8 on the outside of the front line and burst to the front after 550m, following a swift lead time of 35.7sec.
Hugotastic, the $1.90 favourite from barrier five at his first outing for nine months, was beaten for early speed and was shuffled back to eighth before Emily Suvaljko sent him forward, three wide, after 700m to get to the breeze 1300m from home.
My Watchlist was hopelessly hemmed in on the inside in sixth place in the back straight in the final circuit before he received a heaven-sent opportunity to dash through on the inside with 300m to travel when the two horses in front of him --- Whataretheodds and Captain Confetti --- were eased off the pegs.
My Watchlist sprinted fast and took the lead in the final stages to win comfortably from Better Eclipse and Hugotastic. He rated 1.55.5 after final quarters of 27.6sec. and 28.9sec.
This improved My Watchlist’s record to 24 starts for ten wins, seven placings and $120,584 in prizemoney. He won twice at Invercargill and finished second twice from five New Zealand starts, and his WA record stands at 19 starts for eight wins and five placings after being in the State for three months short of four years.
It took 18 months before My Watchlist made his WA debut, winning easily at a Gloucester Park Tuesday meeting on October 24, 2023. Hoof problems restricted his first WA campaign to three starts for two wins. Then after a ten-month absence My Watchlist returned to action, having two starts for a second and a win before he was off the scene for six months.
He resumed with a ten-run campaign for one win and four placings before going for a spell and then resuming after a five-month break for his current unbeaten four-start campaign.
“It is not surprising that he is performing so well,” said McDonald. “His work at home has always been phenomenal. From day one we knew how good he was; it was just a matter of getting him sound.
“Tonight, he needed a lot of luck, but he had the ability to go with it. From about the 1000m I thought I had to start looking for ways to get off the pegs, and in the end everyone else was making the moves for me.”
Hugotastic fought on determinedly to finish third after his tough run in the breeze. “He might have left his gate speed in New Zealand, and he was also a bit rough out of the gate,” said trainer Michael Young.
“I’ll have to tune that up, and hopefully the gate speed will come back. He was first-up for a long time and sat outside a million-dollar earner and put it to him and just got tired late.”
McDonald completed a double when he drove 11-year-old Mach Three gelding Tubbs Farquhar ($9) to a narrow victory in the 1730m Bouncy Castle Pace. McDonald restrained the Hayden Reeves-trained Tubbs Farquhar at the start and the oldstager sustained a strong three-wide burst from the rear to get up and beat the pacemaker and stablemate Mister Kopa ($11) by a half-head, rating a modest 1.59.
“Tubbs Farquhar had no luck at Albany at his previous start when he got knocked over and almost fell after he got his leg caught in the cart in front of him,” said McDonald.
The WA-bred Tubbs Farquhar has been an iron horse, who has raced 167 times for 22 wins, 40 placings and $170,166 in stakes. He has had 62 starts at Gloucester Park, and remarkably this was his first metro-class success.
Along with his 55 unplaced Gloucester Park efforts he has scored two victories, three seconds and two thirds. His previous city win was in a country-class event in March 2024.
