Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott look to the future with Goldman

The one big move that promises Goldman will remain in the short term is a distance move – on Wednesday at Warwick Farm – with assistant coach Adrian Bott eager to lay the groundwork for the future.

Goldman came from New Zealand with three wins from four starts to a mile, but he had no trouble running the 2000m after a three-month hiatus in his debut for Tulloch Lodge at Kembla last month.

The four-year-old is not nominated for any of the fall features, suggesting he could be a potential spring contender, and Bott said the furphy handicap (2400m) is a tough enough test for a horse emerging from a Benchmark 64 comes out.

“I’m not sure how far we’re going to take him, we haven’t set ourselves any big goals,” Bott said.

“He didn’t come across as too exposed so there’s a bit of work, it takes a good 12 months to settle in so he has some space before he gets to a brand where it gets difficult for him.”

In terms of early wins, Goldman’s sub 61.5kg race win couldn’t have been more impressive and certainly wasn’t expected of Bott – at least the five length lead anyway.

Bott’s assistant coach Gai Waterhouse is no stranger to digging up a progressive stayer from across the ditch, and he believes the only way is up.

“We learned a little bit about him that day, it was his first attempt on the trip but he had a good basis for it,” he said.

“He was really impressive, we were a bit surprised at how dominant he was.