Wheal turns for Alexander
IT is impossible not to compare the career trajectories of Ballarat trainer Archie Alexander and his Geelong Cup galloper Wheal Leisure.
The talented four-year-old mare is a $7 chance in today’s $300,000 Group 3 Geelong Cup, taking a significant leap from her debut win in a Terang maiden in December last year.
Alexander, one of Victoria’s best young trainers, is enjoying his meteoric rise, too, having just trained Caulfield Cup runner Lord Fandango in only his fourth year as a trainer.
And like Wheal Leisure, he always looked like he would make it at the top from the minute he set foot on a racetrack.
“It couldn’t have gone better,” Alexander said of his foray into training.
“There has been a lot of hard work from myself and the team.
“It’s always a big risk. If I go bankrupt all the staff can go and get another job, but I’m the one who’s bankrupt.
“There’s always a lot to worry about, but the risk was one I was happy to take.
“I am ambitious, but I wasn’t arrogant enough to say that I would make it. But if you try hard there is every chance you get there eventually.”
It’s fair to say Wheal Leisure was never rated as a future star in the sales ring.
She sold for only $22,000 from the Eliza Park International draft at the Inglis Premier sales.
Owner John Richards loved the look of her and decided to give a horse he hoped would be a rising star to a rising star of the training world. It has paid dividends. Wheal Leisure has racked up almost $300,000 in prizemoney, placed in the Listed Tasmanian Oaks and ran fifth behind one-time Caulfield Cup favourite Bonneval in the Group 1 ATC Australian Oaks.
“The owner was pretty sharp. He bought her well,” Alexander said.
“John is a local guy from Ballarat, I bumped into him here and there. He is a good supporter he said he wanted to
help someone young and give them a shot.
“Lord Fandango is the best horse I have got, but in saying that she is not far behind him.
“From the day she first had a trial we liked her. She’s got big ability.
“When you think from December to now is 10 months and she’s gone from a maiden at Terang to a Geelong Cup.
“None of the others in that field will have done the same.”
Alexander is a hard worker, born and raised to always be in the racing industry. And for the 31-year-old training was the only option.
The son of Hamish Alexander, who bought champion British Derby winner Generous as a foal, Archie has worked with some of the industry’s best around the world.
In the UK he spent time with Mark Johnston, Nicky Henderson, Paul Webber. In France it was Criquette HeadMaarek. The United States? Todd Pletcher.
In Australia, Alexander has worked with Melbourne Cup fanatic Lloyd Williams, Anthony Cummings and Danny O’Brien.
It is some CV.
So who does he base his training style on?
“I have learned a bit from everyone,” Alexander said.
And while Wheal Leisure is moving through racing’s ranks quicker than her last 200m in a 2000m race, he is careful not to push her too hard.
He wants his horse racing at five, six, seven, eight years old rather than dominating early and fizzling away.
Alexander believes a tilt at the 2018 Melbourne Cup rather than the 2017 one is a commonsense approach.
“I always refer to Prince Of Penzance. It took him three seasons to slowly condition himself to be a really, really top class stayer,” he said.
“Look at Chris Waller and Winx. He got her to be good because he didn’t run her in the spring in the Oaks, he waited to the AJC Oaks (in the autumn).
“I don’t want to have a good three or four-year-old. I want a good horse for years.
“You need to build them up, because once they lose their confidence it is hard to get it back.
“There is a lot to look forward to with her for the next 12 months.”