Higher Achievement on cards for Chris Waller colt after his Gosford win

Courier-Mail

10-05-2025

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Hidden Achievement thrust his name into the conversation for higher honours in the Brisbane winter carnival when the smart colt led home a stable quinella for Chris Waller at Gosford on Saturday.
The exciting son of I Am Invincible was strong through the line to hold out impressive stablemate Sarapo in the Ortus Financial 2YO Handicap (1200m).
The two-year-old event had been turned on its head just over an hour before the race when hot favourite Sequista had to be scratched after sustaining multiple lacerations in the float en route to the track.
Waller's duo took full advantage with jockey Adam Hyeronimus producing an assertive steer on Hidden Achievement ($5).
Hyeronimus barged his way off the fence to get Hidden Achievement in the clear at the top of the straight and was strong late, winning by three quarters of a length from Sarapo while the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained Chicama ($3.70) was back in third.
'I probably could have rode the fence and got out and he would still have been too good but I just wanted to get to the outside of that horse,' Hyeronimus said.
'He is a very nice horse. Six furlong probably isn't his distance but he was just too good for them and is only on the way up.'
Hidden Achievement had put the writing on the wall on debut after getting out late at Canterbury and surging home for second.
The stable hold the lightly-raced talent in high regard.
'Hidden Achievement is a lovely colt,' Waller's stable representative Zane Jones said.
'He has improved out of sight from his trials to his debut performance.
'That race at Canterbury, just good horses, only they can do that and make up that much ground at Canterbury and he was rapid through the line.
'He has taken good improvement and out of that and he was aided by a good ride today and was too strong.'
Sarapo, a son of English champion Frankel, was the only first starter in the two-year-old field and produced an ominous performance for the future in defeat.
The promising youngster settled near the back of the small field and was forced to loop around the field before hitting the line strongly.
'It's never easy at Gosford particularly but you had to like the way he found the line,' Jones said.
'He still presents as a green horse and will improve a hell of a lot.
'He was the only horse that hadn't so he has got a nice future and he will get a lot further in time as well.'
The quinella came just a few days after fellow Waller-trained colt Regulated Affair scored an emphatic victory at Warwick Farm.
All three colts have nominations for the Group 2 BRC Sires' Produce Stakes and Group 1 JJ Atkins Stakes in Queensland and both races are an option for Hidden Achievement and Sarapo.
'We have just given them time to develop and sometimes that's the cheapest thing you can do and the best thing for them,' Jones said.
'They will only improve, there is still a lot of water to go under the bridge but we are very pleased with the army we could have up there this way.'
Hidden Achievement saw his price slashed from $26 into $11 for the Group 1 JJ Atkins Stakes while Sarapo was $51 into $15.
Hidden Achievement has covered plenty of territory in his short time since foaled at Yarraman Park the day after Gold Trip's win in the 2022 Melbourne Cup.
The son of three-time Champion Australian Sire I Am Invincible was recorded as Passed In for $350,000 at the 2024 Inglis Easter Yearling Sale.
He resurfaced later that year at Karaka when offered at NZB's annual Ready To Run Sale where he was knocked down for $675,000 making him the third highest priced two-year-old across all lots.
Hidden Achievement is a member of the most celebrated family in both the Australian and New Zealand Studbooks given he traces in a direct line to the epic broodmare, Eight Carat.
His dam, La Luna Rossa, was ranked one of the top fillies of her era after winning the Group 1 Manawatu Sires' Produce Stakes (1400m) for legendary trainer, Murray Baker.
Originally published as Group 1 JJ Atkins beckons for Chris Waller's promising colts Hidden Achievement and Sarapo after Gosford quinella