Hall of Fame trainer Bart Cummings famously stated that patience is the most affordable asset in racing.
Alex Rae, a young trainer from Cranbourne, has certainly felt the strain of patience as he eagerly anticipates the return of Lofty Arch to the track this autumn.
A three-year-old colt with only three career starts, Lofty Arch will make his comeback in the Group 3 Zeditave Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield this Saturday.
The colt displayed great potential in his first campaign last spring, securing a debut win at Cranbourne and following it up with a victory in the Listed Gothic Stakes (1200m) on October 26, before taking a well-deserved break.
After such success, it would have been easy to step Lofty Arch up to the Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes (1200m) at Flemington on Victoria Derby Day, but Rae opted for a more cautious approach, believing the colt would benefit from a slower build-up.
“He was thrown in the deep end his first preparation and dealt with it really well,” Rae said.
“When we discussed whether to run in the Coolmore, the only thing we could say with any confidence was that he was going to take a significant step from his first racing prep to this one.”
“He certainly has. All his data parameters have, and he’s a horse that has grown and got stronger.”
“The temptation was to start earlier, but the preparation always had to be methodical, so we decided to work back from a couple of suitable targets, in particular this time of year and it’s been slow the build-up.”
“He’s had three jump-outs and he’s found himself in good order on Saturday, so hopefully he can take that step forward.”
Rae has selected the Zeditave Stakes as a logical starting point for Lofty Arch, racing against his peers, with the hope of progressing to bigger races later in the season.
But first and foremost, Rae simply wants to see Lofty Arch perform well.
“First-up, against his own age and then hopefully from that point on, if he progresses the way we hope, we can then target some better races,” Rae said.
“If he runs well on Saturday and if he shows he could take another step forward, we could look at the Newmarket Handicap at Flemington.”
“But we’ll deal with Saturday first. They don’t give Group 3’s away, but we feel he’s taken a step forward and let’s hope he has.”