WIDDUP'S PATIENCE WITH TEQUILA BABY PAYS OFF
- John Curtis
- 14 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Even when that horse might have just won another race at her first start back from a spell.
Leading Hawkesbury trainer Brad Widdup did that with now four-year-old mare Tequila Baby, who repaid him by breaking through for her first city victory at Canterbury today.
Ridden by last season’s champion Sydney apprentice Braith Nock, Tequila Baby defied a betting drift ($2.90 favorite at one stage this morning to start at $4.40) to overhaul the pacy Jamais ($17) to land the Benchmark 64 Handicap (1200m) against her own sex.
The daughter of Capitalist and Onemorenomore mare One More Tequila fetched $210,000 as an Inglis Australian Easter weanling in 2022 before being passed in at $250,000 the following year at the Inglis Ready2Race sale as an unraced two-year-old.
Widdup gave Tequila Baby only two starts as a two-year-old, and at her third start in her three-year-old season, a $50,000 Super Maiden at the Snake Gully Cup meeting at Gundagai 12 months ago was hers for the taking.
She went for a break, came back and won a 3YO Benchmark 64 Handicap (1100m) on her home track in April – and that’s when Widdup pulled up stumps.
“Tequila Baby was starting to jar up in her knees,” he explained this evening.
“It was immaturity and she didn’t need surgery, but needed time and that’s why I stopped with her.
“She is a lovely type of mare and has come back really well.
“Tequila Baby was narrowly beaten first-up over 1000m at Kembla Grange earlier in the month, and I wasn’t overly confident today as she is still above herself.
“I thought she might be a bit vulnerable late if she led, but was happy when Jamais took up the running and Braith (Nock) was able to give our mare a nice run behind her.
“She did a good job with 59kg, and it’s the right time of the year with the spring carnival over to give her more racing.
“We might have to go to town now.”
Tequila Baby is the fourth foal of three-times winning Newcastle mare One More Tequila (trained by Peter Eggleston), and Widdup also her sixth foal Tequisoda (by Pierro), a $160,000 purchase for Mulberry Racing at last year’s Inglis Premier yearling sale in Melbourne.
Tequisoda is already a winner (at Hawkesbury in July) from only three starts, and won’t be long winning another one after a luckless third over 1400m at Kembla Grange last Saturday.
Tequila Baby was Widdup’s third winner – his 21st of the season – in as many days after Forcefilly scored at Nowra on Monday, and debutante Azure Angel surged home from well back on the turn at Scone yesterday.
And his winning week may not be over either. He has four runners at Newcastle tomorrow with Lightness (Christian Reith) his pick in the Midway Maiden Handicap (1400m).
The Mulberry-owned Proisir three-year-old ran second first-up at Kembla Grange on November 4 at only her second start, and will race in winkers this time.
