Master plan a winner
AS training trajectories go, Archie Alexander sits firmly in the meteoric category.
As training CVs go, the Englishman’s grounding in the inexact science of finetuning the frames and minds of 500kg equines is almost beyond compare.
From Nicky Henderson, Paul Webber and Mark Johnston in the UK to Criquette Head-Maarek in France to Todd Pletcher in the US to Australian stints with Lloyd Williams, Anthony Cummings and Danny O’Brien, Alexander’s education is impressive.
Throw in a decent term in the all-conquering yard of the world’s foremost trainer, Aidan O’Brien, and the career-moulding strategy behind Alexander’s diverse pathway is obvious.
None of it happened by accident.
“It was a deliberate pathway,” Alexander said.
“I never left one of those stables because I was bored or because I was sacked.
“I wanted to gain as much experience as I could and to absorb as much as I could from each place I had been.”
At just 31, Alexander is very much his own man but also an amalgam of his past.
“I’ve been able to take different things from different people and I have my own style,” he said.
Alexander has had his training licence for less than four years but is already an ascendant operator in a fiercely competitive arena.
With more than 80 winners and almost $3 million in prizemoney, he has his first Caulfield Cup runner with Lord Fandango.
Strongly supported by OTI Racing, which owns Lord Fandango, Alexander says the import has more than a chancer’s hope in the Cup.
“Lord Fandango was impressive last start (in the Herbert Power), he has a low weight and is ridden by someone (Ben Allen) who knows him really well,” he said.
“He has a good draw (nine), is a course-and-distance winner and ... he’s improving fast.”