Cindy Alderson hopeful Henry George can continue hot start
CINDY Alderson knows how hard it is to jump from a maiden victory straight into a class one, but the experienced trainer is confident her first start, first win four-year-old, Henry George, has the ability to salute at Pakenham on Thursday night.
The Bel Esprit progeny recorded an eye-catching 2.8 length victory at Moe on January 16 and, after a two week freshen up, the gelding looks well-placed to maintain the unblemished record, despite the significant step up in class.
Alderson believes the talented, yet lightly-raced runner has the ability to step straight into class one action on Thursday and make its mark.
“I’m certainly hopeful,” Alderson told HorseBetting.com.au.
“It’s very difficult these days with the competitive racing and the gradings that we’ve got for horses looking to make that step from a maiden to winning their next start.”
The concern for the Henry George camp going into Thursday for Alderson is the gulf in experience.
Several of the key elects in the market have raced significantly more than Henry George, but the trainer will take heart from the fact that its debut win was so strong, despite making mistakes along the way.
“Obviously he’s stepping from a maiden to a class 1 and Ragazzo Del Corsa has been around and so has El Dorado Mine so it’s going to be a lot stronger race than the race he ran in at Moe, but he won that comprehensively and he’s gone on from there so I’m hopeful he’s going to perform well again on Thursday evening.”
“I think his improvement has certainly been good enough for him to be competitive in this race, it will be just whether he’s got the experience to compete against these horses as well.”
A win on Thursday would exponentially boost the prospects of the gelding, who many believe has the ability to be a progressive type.
Alderson believes there is no limit to what the horse can achieve if it continues to fulfil the potential it has already shown since saluting in its debut.
“We’re just taking it along step by step,” the trainer said.
“He’s had a lot of problems so we’re not getting too far ahead of ourselves, but he seems to be on an upward trajectory at the moment, so while he continues to go well we’ll continue to place him through the grades.”