Webb puts his placid colt in the frame for Derby
STUART Webb crumples up a towel and throws it at his VRC Derby runner Get The Picture to prove a point.
He is adamant his threeyear-old colt is so placid he could do a stint at the kids pony rides on the way to the Flemington starting gates today and would not raise a sweat.
The towel lands on the stable straw and Webb, thankfully, is proven right. Get The Picture does not rear, does not lash out and does not even flinch.
He just looks at the towel and then looks at Webb. It’s this relaxed demeanour, his trainer believes, that can help him win the 2500m Derby.
“He’s that quiet,” Webb says from his row of stalls at Caulfield’s Aquanita stables.
“I can throw that towel on him or whether it be putting a kid on him and he’ll just be an absolute gentleman. He’s got a temperament you would pay a lot of money for.”
Hong Kong connections did try to pay for Get The Picture after his hard-closing second in the Group 2 Stutt Stakes (1600m) at Moonee Valley on October 2.
But Webb says the owners, including his friend Barry Pearce, decided to “roll the dice” and race for the $1.5 million on offer today.
Come 2.50pm, those same owners will have their hearts in their mouths as the starter’s gates fly open. Not that it will bother Get The Picture.
“I think that’s going to be his real attribute – he will be asleep in the stalls before the race,” Webb said.
“He’ll wander around the mounting yard as though he was brought up there and he’ll amble off to the start, he’ll jump out of the barriers, he’ll come straight underneath Damien Oliver and hopefully Damien can put him in a picture-perfect spot.
“If that gets him into the first three, I’d be ecstatic, and if he went over the line first, well that’s dream-come-true stuff.”
Webb is no stranger to Group 1 victories, having trained smart mare Yosei.
But none of her three wins at the highest level came on spring’s biggest stage.
“To win a VRC Derby would be so, so special. Just as much for a smaller trainer such as me as it would be for Mick Price, who has the favourite (Tarzino),” Webb said.
Webb believes Get The Picture can settle more forward from barrier five on Saturday and has given every indication he will stay the 2500m.
Oliver, who replaces the suspended Mark Zahra on the colt, says Get The Picture would be “in with every chance” turning into the long Flemington straight.