FLEMINGTON DOUBLE FOR ARCHIE ALEXANDER STABLE

By Graham Potter | Saturday, February 27, 2021

The Archie Alexander stable completed a double at Flemington when Chaillot got the better of Need New Friends in a driving finish to put a Group 3 win behind hier name.

Chaillot now has four wins from only seven starts.

“In the Matriarch, we didn’t see the best of her (when unplaced but only 2.65 lengths off the winner, Affair To Remember), but when I saw Declan (Bates) peeling to the outside here and building momentum … I have got a lot of faith in her and thought she would be too good. That’s how she runs well,” said Alexander.

“At the same time, she never does too much. She is quite smart. I don’t think you will ever see her win by a couple of lengths. She is always just going to win.

“It was a big effort. She hasn’t been a straight-forward horse. I think we are over everything hopefully. We had a rocky three-year-old year with her, but I think we are confident everything has come together.

“She is thriving with racing and she is really enjoying life. She came here a very confident mare.”

Declan Bates put his race in perspective.

“I think I got moving a little bit early and I had to take a bit of a pull because I was going to get there a little bit too soon,” said Bates.

‘She has a very good turn of foot, but you don’t want to get there too soon. Once she hits the front, she thinks she has done enough.

“If you can utilise that turn of foot right, she can be lethal.

“She has Group 1 potential.”