Proven sprinter Jigsaw has offered trainer Cindy Alderson a thrilling voyage.
A capable performer at two and three, Jigsaw went off track in the heart of his career but has swung back strongly to become a double Group 1 winner.
Headed to New Zealand to secure the Railway Stakes at Ellerslie in January, providing Alderson and Logan Bates with their first Group 1 hits, Jigsaw lengthened his winning run to six by capturing the Group 1 William Reid Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield on Saturday.
Following up merely a week after his score at Caulfield on the same distance as the William Reid Stakes, Jigsaw ($5.50) commanded from the outset to score by a long neck from Angel Capital ($8.50), as Devil Night ($81) trailed a short-half-head adrift in third.
Strikingly, Jigsaw clocked 1.08.83 for the 1200m, the exact figure from his win last week.
Alderson keeps expecting the astonishing run of form to halt sometime soon.
“But he’s not giving me any indications it’s going to stop,” Alderson said.
“He’s just run exactly the same time as he ran last week, so he answered the back-up.
“It’s amazing for a small stable like ours to have the opportunity to have a horse like this at this stage of my career.”
Jigsaw joined seven other Group 1 winners in the field and had the outside barrier draw.
Pre-race chats with Bates highlighted worries over the Saturday field’s strength over the wide post position.
“We were never too concerned about him drawing a wide gate, especially with the start being in a straight line,” Alderson said.
“He was able to control the race. He got an absolute flyer of a start and I thought Tropicus would go up and take us on, but they didn’t.
“Charm Stone gave him a run on the corner, but he kept fighting all the way to the line.”
Concluding a seven-race effort from September with six triumphs, Alderson is not certain how much further Jigsaw can go this time in.
“I keep taking it one day at a time,” Alderson said.
“I’ve never backed him up, so that could be the end of the preparation as he’s been in work for a long time, but he’ll tell me.
“I know him that well. He won’t do much for the following week and then he’ll let us know.
“Looking at him out there, he’s never looked better in his life.”
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