Speaker 1Well, he knows that his filly is going towards the Everest after Blue Door was announced last night through Singo that, you know, she's off to race with the team from Newgate. Morning, Bjorn. Good morning, mate.
Speaker 2Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1It worked, mate. It worked. You said after the race on the weekend, you said Nash is pretty excited. Come on, Singo, let's go. And you've got her in the race, which is really good for you and the team, mate.
Speaker 2Yeah, fantastic. Well, it's now, if not the biggest race in the country, very, very close to it. It's an amazing atmosphere and it's amazing to be involved. So, as we know, Singo is one of the great characters of Australia, also one of the biggest supporters of racing. He supports a lot of young trainers, a lot of youth, and it's great to have a horse with him. And, of course, Newgate doing a phenomenal job and I was lucky enough to be with them and GPI as well last year. With Overpass, so it's good to be involved again. Of course, I've got a very big opinion of Stay Inside, who stands at Newgate. Of course, he's the son of Extreme Choice. He's one of the best stallions in the country. And Blue Door being by Stay Inside fits in pretty well with that as well. So, no, it's definitely great to be there. It's going to be a great day, win, lose or draw. But I think we can go there and be competitive with no weight. And you've got to believe, I thought she paraded really well on Saturday. We've got a lovely three weeks to be fourth up, this preparation in the Everest. And she's only had the one start at Randwick when she won first start off one trial. And I thought it was a phenomenal effort. So, it's going to be a very, very special day and one of the great race days in the world, no doubt about it.
Speaker 1It could be a huge day for you because you've got green spaces going towards a Caulfield Cup. Because Rachel King will be in Melbourne to ride green spaces, is there a chance that, and there was a rumour rolling around yesterday, that a jockey like Jamie Mellon might be asked to ride Blue Dora in a Tab Everest. Can you confirm that for us?
Speaker 2Yeah, there's no jockey locked in at the moment. It's a simple play. Of course, Rachel is on green spaces. And I think he'll run really well in the Metrop this Saturday and cement his place in the Caulfield Cup. Jamie could well be on half yours in the Caulfield Cup. So, a little bit of water to go under the bridge. But there's definitely some really good possibilities in Sydney as well for the likes of Tyler Schiller and so forth. So, we've got a few options there. We'll probably let the Saturday racing go and then be able to make a really good informed decision. Rachel knows Blue Dora well. Of course, she won the kindergarten on her and has ridden her a lot at home. So, she would probably be in the box seat if green spaces doesn't run as well as I think. But I think he'll run well Saturday.
Speaker 1Okay. Well, that's exciting to hear that he will run well Saturday. And, I mean, we talk about Blue Dora who's going into the Everest, but it wasn't even your biggest winner on the weekend where we saw Warwoven win that Golden Rose. Just quietly, mate. Well, not quietly. You should be shouting this from the top of the stable. BjornBakerRacing.com.au 17 winners from your past 50 runners. You're striking at 34%. Seven of them have been stakes winners. Warwoven, you've always had a rap on him. You were flat as a tack at the Magic Millions after he was scratched in January. And you mentioned this in a post I saw on your social media. You said, you know, look, you and the team were pretty knocked about. You thought you were going to win that Magic Millions by a space, but now you've been rewarded with Warwoven winning the Golden Rose. And he didn't just win it, mate. He blew them away.
Speaker 2Yeah, it was phenomenal. And, well, firstly, we won't look at the previous 100 starters before the last 50. So, it just shows you. It shows you. And the fans can turn around. A lot of the horses were running really well prior to that. We had a lot of seconds. And, essentially, you need your good horses to stand up. So, being very lucky. And you talk about Warwoven. Yeah, it was definitely one of the biggest thrills in terms of my training career. He was phenomenal. And I've got a great bunch of owners. One of them, you know very well, keeps feral by name, feral by nature. He's got a pretty good crew. So, they were understanding. And it's hard to be understanding when you're a $1.50 favourite for the Magic Millions and Scratch Lake. And at the end of the day, you've got to take the good with the bad. And it just shows you do the right thing and you surround yourself with good people. You can turn it around. And I'm lucky to have a great team around me, of course, Luke Hilton and Rachel. He's ridden them through and through. Of course, a guy like Alan Frogley, who's my vet, who works very closely, not just in the stable day-to-day, but also involved in the purchasing of these horses. And I've got to say, he was fairly busy after the Magic Millions. And we did everything we could. And, thankfully, it's paid off. And he's a very sound, actually healthy horse. He couldn't look any better, I'm certain. And, as a trainer, it really helps training good horses. And Clark, of course, is one of my great friends as well. He's heavily involved with George, who works with me. So, I've just got a great team. And they're being able to buy very, very good horses that I think are exceptional value. So, I think there are huge opportunities. You can get a horse like him. And I think some of the horses over the past few years have been not the most expensive yearlings, but the performing very much amongst the best. So, I'm very lucky to be in that situation.
Speaker 1Bjorn, you mentioned. You mentioned straight after the race as well. Because everyone, you know, automatically thinks, win a Golden Rose and, oh, we go off to a Tab Everest. But you were like, no, bring on the mile at Caulfield and then possibly bring on a Cox Plate, which would be something pretty special this year at Flemington. Not an easy race to win, but, gee, it looks like he loved the 10 furlong.
Speaker 2Well, you've got to dream. And it's very much one race at a time. The main aim is to get through the 10 furlongs. And I thought he'd be better at the 1,400. It did work out. He had a beautiful run in transit, which no doubt helped. But then the mile of the Caulfield Guineas, I think, will be good for him. I think he's got an exceptional base to go. They're obviously left-handed at Caulfield. It's a little bit different. So, we'll have to do a couple of gallops left-handed going into that race. Then if he happened to run as well as I hope and think he will, the Cox Plate could become an option. But if he does run well in the Caulfield Guineas, he's also going to have to recover well. So, that's first and foremost. I'm still hopeful the best is yet to come. So, really, really exciting, but very much one race at a time.
Speaker 1So, just a comment, too, on So You Are, because he was so good on Saturday, too. He looks like, at the top of Australia, he's going to get run down. He fights. You cheekily allude to a Melbourne Cup path after the win. But what path do you want to take him down?
Speaker 2We'll just see. Still in the Caulfield Cup, the central ledger, is well on Everest Day over 2600. So, that's a realistic option. One or two or one of those races would be ideal. And then, hopefully, into the Melbourne Cup. It's always, you never quite know where you stand in the order. You can go through it and through it and through it. And there's a lot of water to go under the bridge with the vetting of all the runners and a lot of the Europeans. It's hard to know where you're at. But he's very genuine. He tries hard. And even though it wasn't the greatest field on Saturday, he sort of had to sit outside the lead. And he definitely got a little bit hot pre-race. And I thought with the big weight, it was a pretty sound effort.
Speaker 1So, for Saturday, we touched on green spaces before. We mentioned his name. So, Metropolitan, what did you make of the Kingston Town effort? Do you think he can win the Metrop, genuinely? Do you go there on Saturday thinking that he can win with confidence?
Speaker 2Yeah, I think the Kingston Town, he does. Definitely was below his beam. His work's been good since. We know he's probably going to be better with a better tempo on. The 2400 suits, of course, a Derby winner. And a little bit of rain around, too. That won't dent his chances. So, I think he definitely will turn it around. You can't knock him on one bad run on probably a race that looked hard to make up ground. So, I think with a bigger field, a genuine run race, will suit him.
Speaker 1Now, the budgie smuggler, he'll appreciate the cut out of the track this week. And if we do get this late week of rain, and he's now third up from that Queensland winter campaign.
Speaker 2Yeah, and I think even last start, the race was a very fast run race. Fitness-wise, he's going to come on. And even though he's had voids between runs, he's had a trial. We've kept him up to the mark. He galloped really well this morning. And he's got a very, very good record at 2400.
Speaker 1Now, in the Epsom, there's a text here on the text line saying, Dave, I'm on Perfumist in the Epsom on Saturday. This is from Will. And he wants to know, will he be collecting his cash? Well, if we knew, Will, we wouldn't be here. We'd only be in the Bahamas if we knew what was going to happen. But that win in the Tibby was very, very good. And are you confident? Or has this rain sort of put a little damper on that confidence?
Speaker 2Yeah, I think the term of the track is better for her. We'll just see what happens with that. But the work this morning was sensational. so she really ran their hands off the clock her last one was phenomenal and she gets them with no weight, Rachel King I know you wouldn't swap for anyone at the moment, especially with 50 kilos so I wasn't there this morning Dave actually I'm up in Queensland currently in Florence beautiful property, but I will be going to the Aussie vs Brazil
Speaker 1Oh you're going to the soccer perfect well I'll tell you what, that was outstanding in Townsville on what, Friday, was that Friday Nath? Yeah it was Friday night big thing too Bjorn, Nath said that Brazil were good things last week and Australia's a prize, so what are you tipping tonight Nath, can you help Australia again by just declaring Brazil I'll go another draw righto then, you've got in the gym crack Bjorn Rhythm, in the breeders place Nonu, $600,000 you paid for Nonu, well named are you going to have a two year old winner?
Speaker 2this weekend? Hey Dave, it's $600,000 in Kiwi mate that's still a lot of money
Speaker 1that's still a lot of money mate
Speaker 2in Australia he's a really nice horse, he's a son of Animo trialed very well, he galloped well this morning, I think Colette's very excited about him, and Rhythm's a really nice filly, so she's definitely not out of it, I think she's got a nice future so I guess it's exciting again, it's the next crop coming through, so hopefully we've got one or two.
Speaker 1And just two more questions, and if there's one that and you feel like the punters we should be getting on please let us know, but I want to touch on Rachini who goes around the flight stakes, and led the other day it didn't go on without him, Spelling gone, okay so Rachini goes for a spell and we talk about Bluedore being in the Everest, jeez if Cabalas runs well in the Premier Stakes, surely he's going to come into the frame of getting a start or at least being spoken about because he's had two trials since coming back from WA. He's worked
Speaker 2all this morning funnily enough his form when you look at it left-handed, he is definitely nowhere near as good as right-handed his last run in Sydney he came a great second to Jolie Star where he led up and he just got cold and then of course led all the way in the new market, and I know he's got a flexible racing pattern but I can't help but think he's a much better horse if he can just sit second, third, fourth, fifth, I think he's improved again, I really do think he's flying um and I think the best is yet to come so I'm confident he can actually put a claim in for the Everest on Saturday, of course we had overpass trial this morning he'll head to Everest Day as well, he's going very very well but I think Cabalas is a big improver and fee, and I think he'll run very well on Saturday, albeit it's going to be awfully hard to beat.
Speaker 1Okay, and lastly unleashing in that 94 mile race, the 1600 meter race, flying, absolutely flying and you won this race last year with Perfumist, who beat on that day Idle Flyer and then they ran the Quinella and the Angst, is that the same path you want to take unleashing on?
Speaker 2Yeah definitely, so hopefully she can run well on Saturday, she gets in with absolutely no weight, and then go to the mile on Everest Day, which I think she'll be very competitive, so she's um, she's a mare that we've always had a lot of time for had one or two sort of niggly problems, but I like to think she's over that and I think if she gets any luck in running, it'll be a tough race on Saturday but with no weight she's
Speaker 1going well. Good to talk with you Bjorn good luck for the weekend, what is your best this weekend? Ooh
Speaker 2Nonu named after the great all black Nonu, remember that became the one of these on Sunday night remember how he just used to carve your back line up? Yes I'm hopeful that can we get him on into the races?
Speaker 1Can you get Nonu into the races? Connections? Get on the old man to ring Henry or even surely Keith
Speaker 2I think he's still playing
Speaker 1professional rugby Yes I know, I know, but Keith knows everybody, he knows all those all blacks, every time I'm with Keith he pulls out the phone and says I've texted this bloke, I've texted this bloke, I've texted this bloke, he knows everybody
Speaker 2Keith's actually the second reddest lane dropper I've ever met after you Dave Anyway, watch Nonu from Carver for the next final game See you team
Speaker 1Champion, thanks Bjorn
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