Phillip Stokes’ hopes of winning a third consecutive TAB Adelaide Cup rest with Amade
Phillip Stokes’ hopes of winning a third consecutive TAB Adelaide Cup rest with Amade.
Phillip Stokes’ hopes of winning a third consecutive TAB Adelaide Cup rest with quirky stayer Amade, who bounced back to form with a placing in the Listed Victoria Cup (2100m) in Melbourne recently.
The trainer, who operates stables at Morphettville in South Australia and Pakenham in Victoria, won the TAB Adelaide Cup for the first time in 2021 with Good Idea before doubling the dose last year with Daqiansweet Junior.
Both Good Idea and Daqiansweet Junior are enjoying some paddock time after exhaustive spring preparations and Amade almost joined them after an underwhelming first-up run at Sandown.
But Stokes said he was buoyed by the nine-year-old’s latest outing, albeit he is still concerned about how much Amade is doing wrong in his races, including his slow starts.
“We’re going to bring Amade over for the Adelaide Cup,” Stokes said.
“We were happy enough with his run last weekend, he showed that he still wants to do it and he found the line well.
“He’s pulled up well and I think he can run a race.
“He’s a very quirky horse and we just have to let him do his thing – he’s in a very good headspace so if he turns up to Morphettville happy then he can hopefully do all the right things.
“We’ve been through this with him before when he was missing the start by 10 lengths and running really well in races that he probably should’ve won.
“It makes it hard when he’s missing the kick and doing all of that wrong.”
Amade has only raced 21 times, with his best performance coming with victory in the 2019 Group 2 Belmont Gold Cup (3200m) in the USA. He also won over 2600m at Flemington in mid-2021.
Cliff Fenwick’s hardy stayer Lord Reims won three consecutive Adelaide Cups between 1987 and 1989 but no trainer has won three straight editions of the Adelaide Cup with different horses.
Stokes said his recent spate of success with stayers was a result of the variety of facilities he has access to across his stables at Pakenham and Morphettville.
“It’s a bit of history worth chasing,” he said.
“I’ve been able to achieve that by having the base over here in Victoria and we’ve been lucky enough to be given some nice stayers by OTI Racing and other supporters.
“We’ve got some very good facilities and a very good team to help train these horses.”
Amade represents one of only a few ‘locally’ trained stayers with a genuine chance in the TAB Adelaide Cup, with horses from Victoria, New South Wales and even Western Australia expected to line up in the race and dominate the market.
The first three horses over the line in Saturday’s Group 3 Lord Reims Stakes (2600m), including Robert Hickmott’s winner Highland Jakk, were trained by Victorians, while last-start Torney Night Cup hero Swords Drawn, Sydney stayer True Marvel and Perth Cup runner-up Stafford’s Lad appear strong chances in the race based on their recent form.