Gai Waterhouse reckons she unearthed a colt which can deliver her a fourth straight Breeders' Plate and a filly capable of fighting out the Gimcrack Stakes, but can they stop the Hawkes Racing juggernaut?
Waterhouse (five) and Team Hawkes (three) scooped eight of the 10 heats run on the Kensington track as the official two-year-olds' trials took centre stage on Monday. The latter took three regally bred babies to the trials – they fetched a combined $3.25 million in the sales ring – and Hall of Famer John Hawkes must have been buoyed about his prospects of a fourth Golden Slipper from what he saw.
Sooboog, a $1.5 million Inglis Easter yearling, shaded Waterhouse's first trialist Vancouver for time honours on the day as James McDonald eased him to an ever-widening 5-1/2 length win.
Mawahibb ($750,000), a half-brother to this year's Golden Slipper winner Mossfun, and $1 million filly Lake Geneva were also impressive in heat wins. Lake Geneva was the fastest filly over the 800-metre scamper after recording an identical time to Clarry Conners' Rainbeam.
 
But co-trainer Michael Hawkes remained guarded about the prospects of a Breeders-Gimcrack double on Epsom day. "We're going to wait and see before we sort it out," he said. "There's no rush. Ideally it's the way to go, but I just wanted to see them get through [Monday] and the next couple of days and then we'll worry about where, how and what. They all handled themselves well. Just because they cost a lot of money [doesn't mean they're going to run]. Mossfun only cost $85,000 [and still won the Golden Slipper].
"I've got a soft spot for Mawahibb because he is the younger brother of Mossfun. To do what he did was impressive to me. He was slow away and not many two-year-olds were making up ground. It's all about education and it's more relief than anything they've come out and shown us what they've shown at home."
Waterhouse was her typical forthright self after preparing half of the 10 heat winners, headlined by $185,000 Magic Millions buy Vancouver. Prevail and Themis were eye-catching trial winners out of her fillies brigade. "I'm very excited," she said. "I love the two-year-olds and it gets people a return for their money early and it gets people involved as you can see [on Monday] with all the people coming here."
 
Quizzed on whether she could win a fourth straight Breeders' Plate, Waterhouse said: "I thought Vancouver, the colt in the first, was most impressive and he'll fight the Breeders' Plate out. I thought Prevail will fight the Gimcrack Stakes out. I like the way Pierrette, Themis and Lonaura all trialled. I'll probably have a couple [in the Breeders' Plate and Gimcrack Stakes] and I'll send one or two to Melbourne to split my team up."
Hugh Bowman crashed to the turf heavily in the final trial and was taken to Prince Of Wales Hospital for observation. Bowman was turfed from Echo Queen at the 600-metre mark and sustained minor concussion.
