Champion trainer Gai Waterhouse has never been backwards in coming forward when discussing Tulloch Lodge horses and she is expecting big things from her star sprinter English when the mare resumes at Randwick in the Group II The Shorts (1100m) on Saturday.
English is one of seven confirmed runners in the $10 million The Everest (1200m) at Randwick on October 14.
Waterhouse, who trains in partnership with Adrian Bott, said English has come back a different horse to the one that was nailed in the final stride in the TJ Smith Stakes by Chautauqua during the autumn.
"She's really matured since we last saw her," Waterhouse said. "She's grown a hand, put on weight, she's really come of age.
"She's really typical of her sire Encosta De Lago. His stock normally take a while to mature.
"She was precocious at two, very good at three, better again at four and I honestly think she's better again now as a five-year-old."
The Group I-winning mare has never previously won a race during the spring but Waterhouse says that is about to change in the coming weeks with English set to resume on Saturday off two solid trial performances.
"She's been unstoppable since coming back into work this preparation and I really think she could go through the spring unbeaten," Waterhouse said.
"Everything she runs in she'll give a shake."
While Waterhouse believes English will be hard to beat this weekend, she's not so confident about the prospects of Pandemonium in the Group II Tea Rose Stakes (1400m) but she does believe the daughter of Sebring is a Group I filly in waiting.
"This is a Flight Stakes, Thousand Guineas and Oaks filly if ever there was one," Waterhouse said. "This is a top-class filly.
"You don't see them win more impressively than she did at Warwick Farm and the time she ran, the way she annihilated them.
"She will run well but Saturday's 1400m might be a bit short for her. We want to get to Flight Stakes next and it's the right race to get her there."
