THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ALLIGATOR BLOOD - THE VIEW FROM AN OWNER'S PERSPECTIVE - PART 2

By Graham Potter with Jeff Simpson | Friday, October 18, 2019

Jeff Simpson is one of the three owners of Alligator Blood. He first spoke to HRO after the All Too Hard gelding had secured his fourth win in a row at the Sunshine Coast on Sunday, September 15 and was heading to Melbourne. Here, in Part 2, of ‘The Life and times of Alligator Blood – the view from an owner’s perspective’, Jeff continues his back-story of Alligator Blood’s career, this time commenting on the gelding’s super performances in the Caulfield Guineas Prelude and the Caulfield Guineas itself. This is the story of Alligator Blood’s recent Melbourne campaign …as experienced by Jeff Simpson.

After the misadventure in Sydney (where Alligator Blood had to be withdrawn after playing up in the tie up stalls) and Alligator Blood’s subsequent win back at the Sunshine Coast it was once again all systems go for us for another trip down south with the target this time being the Caulfield Guineas Prelude.

We still don’t know what actually set him off in Sydney but we had a different travel plan this time.

In Sydney we only took the horse down two days before the race and I think it all got a bit too much for him. With the Caulfield Guineas Prelude we took him to Melbourne a full ten days before that race and I think that sorted things out a little bit.

We also flew him down this time so that took a bit of the pressure off. He got there to the stables in six hours and I’m sure that made a big difference.

My wife and I were down there the whole time with Alligator Blood. We visited him every day. I actually mucked out his box. That was only because there was either David or Emma there alone at the time and they had a fair bit to do so I helped out.

The horse’s behaviour was really, really exemplary this time. I don’t think we will have a problem if we go away again with him.

Going into the Caulfield Guineas prelude I think there was still a little bit of improvement left in him … bearing in mind his Grand Final was the Caulfield Guineas itself, but we were happy with his fitness at that stage for sure.

During the race I was quite confident from about 700m out, particularly because of where he was sitting. You know, he jumps well. He puts himself into the race. He travels well and he has a kick in the straight. A combination of all of those attributes was good enough to get him home in the Prelude.

The Caulfield Guineas almost looked like it was going to be groundhog-day at the 700m. It was the
same horse he was following and he was in the same position … but, unfortunately, we did not get the same result with Alligator Blood being run down in the last stride by a horse wider out on the track.

It doesn’t change anything but we sort of had the feeling afterwards that if we had got to the middle of the track, or three or four horses wider, he would have heard the other horse coming … he didn’t hear it or see it coming … and our theory is he would then have kicked a bit more.

As it was, he had no time to respond to that late challenge.

We stayed down there the whole time for the Caulfield Guineas as well. He was stabled at Cranbourne. We stayed in a hotel at Cranbourne. There were a lot of 3.30am mornings but that comes with the territory.

It was all very enjoyable. We loved it even though we got beaten in the second one. That’s racing. We’ll accept that and move on.

We’ve got a pretty good program set for Alligator Blood now moving into the future.

Nothing is set in stone obviously with so many variables that can come into play but the Magic Millions Three-Year-Old Guineas has been pencilled in.

We are very happy where he is at now.

We are definitely NOT selling him. Yes, we have had offers and some of the offers are really good but we are not selling.

Personally, I think he is still a few months off. I think he will be at his peak for the Magic Millions … as a three-year-old anyway.

You don’t want to get ahead of yourself but we have looked beyond that in terms of planning. We eventually hope to get him to the Australian Guineas after the Magic Millions and, who knows, if he comes through all of that we might even have a crack at the Stradbroke.

Alligator Blood has gone for a spell now but he won’t be out in the paddock for long. He hates being in the paddock. He wants to do stuff.

We are very fortunate to have him and I’m really looking forward to the next chapter in his career.

See also:

The life and times of Alligator Blood - the view from an owner's perspective Part 1

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