William Thomas after another Caulfield win

Thursday 7 May 2020, 4:21pm

Trainer John Price says William Thomas will need to reach a new level if he is to win successive races at Caulfield.

William Thomas produced a scintillating turn of foot, coming from last at Caulfield on April 18 to win the Listed Bel Esprit Stakes (1100m).

He returns to the track on Saturday over the same distance in the Lamaro's Hotel South Melbourne Handicap, this time with considerably more weight.

Saturday's line-up is not dissimilar to the one he blitzed three weeks ago, but this time William Thomas rises from 56.5kg to 60kg.

"That certainly was a personal best for him," Price said.

"I thought he had a level that was slightly under that, so it was very pleasing to see.

"You can be lucky to get a good horse, but to get a real good horse, they're harder to find.

"He's carrying 60 kilos in this race so hopefully he can rise again."

Price said William Thomas was lucky to be alive, let alone racing, after almost bleeding to death after a paddock accident.

The time on the sidelines resulted in a change of mentality for William Thomas.

"We sent him to a water-walker and he ended up hurting himself quite badly," Price said.

"It was just one of things, but he had a nasty cut on a heel that got one of the main arteries and he nearly bled out.

"He's had four wins since, so that's well and truly behind him."

William Thomas is lightly raced for a rising six-year-old having started 20 times for seven wins, a record Price says could be even better.

Price said as a younger horse William Thomas wanted to get his races over and done with, so he worked on teaching the sprinter to relax.

It worked with Price now describing William Thomas an all-rounder.

"We had that issue of him over-racing early days and I'm certain that cost him a couple of races," Price said.

"Now he's racing the complete opposite but still capable of achieving a result."

Even though William Thomas is a good traveller, Price is in no rush to head interstate.

"There's plenty of good races for him here in Victoria," he said.

"If there isn't a suitable race one week, there will be the next."

– AAP

Latest News

Prime Thoroughbreds - We have a Host of Leaders in our Team

Tuesday, 29 June 2021

Prime Thor­ough­bred’s cur­rent rac­ing team is putt­ing to­gether quite a re­cord. We have 22 hors­es that have raced in our team at pre­sent. Six­teen of th­ese are win­n­ers in­clud­ing the Stakes win­n­ing trio Ru­bisa­ki, Fituese and Xtreme­time with Miss Di­vine Em and Miss In Charge run­n­ing 4th in Stakes races. This sees a stakes win­n­er to win­n­er ra­tio of 18.75% with a stake’s per­formed to win­n­er ra­tio of 31.25%. Th­ese are ex­cep­tio­n­al fig­ures.   More »

Freedmans land maiden Group One win

Saturday, 27 February 2021

Un­der-rat­ed fil­ly For­bid­den Love has emerged as an au­tumn car­ni­val smokey with a bril­liant per­for­mance to win the Sur­round Stakes at Rand­wick.  More »

Capriccio completes Damian Lane treble

Saturday, 27 February 2021

In a big day for coun­try-trained hors­es, War­r­nam­bool fil­ly Capric­cio has tak­en out the In­glis Dash for Daniel Bow­man.  More »

More news headlines »