Tomato Toastie triumphs in thrilling finish at Royal Randwick

The Australian

4 days ago

Promising youngster Tomato Toastie ended her successful debut preparation on a high note when the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained filly held off Crossbow at Royal Randwick on Saturday.
Tomato Toastie showed tenacity over the concluding stages as Crossbow made a surging run along the fence in a desperately tight finish to the Schweppes 2YO Handicap (1400m).
'It was a really tough win,' Bott said.
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'It was a relatively quick turnaround off a Heavy 10 track (run last start) and coming to a nice testing career here early in her career.
'She was out on her feet late. She is not an overly big filly but there is a stack of improvement to come.'
Tomato Toastie got her maiden out of the way at start two 10 days earlier when she relished Heavy 10 conditions at Warwick Farm.
It encouraged Waterhouse and Bott to give emerging daughter of star stallion Too Darn Hot her chance in Saturday company and she didn't disappoint.
Jockey Regan Bayliss landed in a prominent position with Tomato Toastie ($4.80) only trailing Pillow Fight ($3.60), which races in the same colours of owners Cunningham Thoroughbreds.
Pillow Fight didn't have much to offer in the straight and was quick to drop off as Tomato Toastie stayed strong to the line, edging out Chris Waller's Crossbow ($2.70 favourite) by a short half head with Kokatahi ($8.50) a further 1½ lengths way.
'She is tough and tenacious,' Bayliss said.
'Not only did she won on a heavy track over six furlongs the other day, she has backed it up over 1400m in quite a smart field.
'She has done a good job.'
Tomato Toastie hails from a family well known to Bott and most assuredly Waterhouse.
The filly's dam, Al Naifa, is a half-sister to the English who was crowned Champion Female Sprinter in Australia for the 2016/17 season.
Tomato Toastie was from the second crop of Lord Andrew Lloyd-Webber's champion racehorse Too Darn Hot whose service fee has risen from $44,000 to $275,000 in quick time owing to his spectacular success in Australia.
So much so that the Godolphin resident was recently announced as the stallion of choice this spring for Hall Of fame legend, Winx.
Tomato Toastie still has the best of her racing career ahead of her but punters will have to wait a while to see her back at the races.
'She will go for a well-deserved break,' Bott said.
'She has got some maturing to do but she is going out with back-to-back wins and a lot to look forward to.
'We made the call to come here today, thinking we will give her one more run while we can now then we can give her a good break that she deserves.
'Rushing her around for the spring is probably not the right sort of thing to do just yet so that might set us up nicely for a good autumn campaign in time.'
Runner-up Crossbow was unlucky in defeat after losing some momentum at the top of the straight when Pillow Fight slowed in front of him.
The son of Better Than Ready made a strong charge when jockey Jason Collett got clear air.
'When I went back to the inside, he put his head on the side and just wanted to lay out a bit,' Collett said.
'He's still doing a few things wrong but he's got it there.
'I think me can stretch out to the mile but we'll just let him tell as us he gets further into his career.'
Stablemate Kokatahi looked the winner at the 300m but ran out of gas over the concluding stages.