The Aquis farm colour-bearer Anders is hardly recognisable from the horse that took five starts to break his maiden
At his fourth start he was beaten by Peltzer in a red-hot maiden at Kembla Grange back in April.
The handsome son of Not A Single Doubt went from there to break his maiden by nearly seven lengths at Wyong and he hasn’t looked back since.
Following his contemptuous four and three-quarter lengths disposal of Ole Kirk in the Listed The Rosebud on a heavy track at Rosehill on August 8, the Ciaron Maher and David Eustace-trained colt burned the turf in making every post a winner under James McDonald in Saturday’s Group III San Domenico Stakes (1100m) at Rosehill.
Setting sizzling fractions, Anders ended the undefeated run of the top-class So You Think colt by three and a quarter lengths with a further three-quarter of a length back to the Wandjina colt Mamaragan who was doing his best work at the finish coming from last to finish third.
Anders stopped the clock at 1.02.67, only 0.16 seconds outside the track record.
Aquis has certainly got itself an able back up to the Golden Slipper winner Farnan for The Everest.
Ciaron Maher said he would not be scared to Anders in any race but thought that the Group 1 Moir Stakes (1000m) at Moonee Valley on September 25 would be a perfect race for Anders.
"He's very good. I was just saying to one of the owners, he's possibly our best, so I was hoping he would do something like that today," Maher said.
"We always had a very high opinion of him. I thought he could be a Magic Millions horse. What he showed us at home, he just didn't transfer to the track."
"You can just see the way he's developed and the way he’s matured from a two-year-old into a three-year-old colt, it's a big difference. He has stretched and he is a strong. He was a little bit keen today I might have been a bit soft on him he’s a very exciting horse.
"I wouldn't be afraid to put him in any race. Because of his speed, I always thought the Moir at Moonee Valley over 1000m and he'd get a decent weigh-pull over the older horses, would be an ideal race for him."
"But The Everest, you would have to consider it."
Anders is the fourth foal and third winner from as many to race out of the unraced War Emblem mare Madame Andree who has been a ales ring star for
Arrowfield Stud.
Her first foal to sell, the stakes-placed Snitzel colt Battleground, made $900,000 to the bid of James Harron Bloodstock.
At this year’s Magic Millions at the Gold Coast Yearling Sale, George Moore Bloodstock/Gary Moore Racing made the final bid of $360,000 for Madame Andree’s colt from the first crop of Shalaa (IRE).
Madame Andre was imported in utero with her Japanese-bred mare Glamour Stock (Sunday Silence) who is a half-sister to three stakes-winners including the Champion 2YO Colt in Canada in 1999, Exciting Story (Diablo), whose seven wins included the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont.
Madame Andree has a yearling filly by Snitzel and was covered by a previous San Domenico winner, Pariah, last spring.
