September 26, 2021

Hall of Fame trainer Gai Waterhouse boasts an unparalleled seven wins in the G1 Golden Slipper S., and now she has a G1 Golden Rose to sit alongside them on the mantelpiece.

In The Congo (Snitzel), trained by Waterhouse in partnership with Adrian Bott, delivered a supreme front-running performance to win Rosehill’s spring showpiece in a time of 1:21.46 – breaking the previous race record of 1:21.83 set by Exosphere in 2015.

Many expected the Golden Rose to be at the mercy of impressive G2 Run to the Rose winner Anamoe (Street Boss {USA}), but instead it was In The Congo who stole the show.

Ridden by Tim Clark, In The Congo never gave his rivals a look in and kept up a strong gallop all the way to the finish line, holding on to beat the late-finishing Anamoe by 0.2l.

Still in his very first preparation, In The Congo has now had six starts for three wins, three second placings and more than $800,000 in stakes. He won last month’s G3 San Domenico S., and placed in the Run to the Rose and the Listed The Rosebud.

“He wears his heart on his sleeve every time he steps out, and he deserved a tough victory like this,” Bott said.

“We weren’t concerned about the 1400 metres, we knew he had that high cruising speed. He has the ability to sustain that, and that was what we wanted to do today – make it a real test for a few of those, take away some of their brilliance and bring in his assets, like his high cruising speed and that toughness that he’s got.

“Every start he has stepped out he has continued to impress me and improve. We have kept raising the bar from when he stepped out in the off season in the winter and through the early stages of the spring. We set him goals and he kept delivering. He’s still been putting it all together but he has put it all together in a big way now.”

Source: TDN