Pierro just starting: Waterhouse

Thursday 11 October 2012, 3:53pm

Gai Waterhouse says unbeaten super colt Pierro is just getting started and has compared what he's done so far in his career to past champion Tulloch ahead of his attempt at a rare double at Caulfield on Saturday.

"He's just a baby," Waterhouse said. "He might be the best horse you've seen in a long time.

"So far he's starting to get a record like Tulloch."

Trained by Waterhouse's father TJ Smith, Tulloch's champion status was acknowledged when he was named an inaugural inductee to the Australian Racing Hall of Fame alongside Phar Lap, Carbine, Bernborough and Kingston Town.

Pierro will attempt to extend his string of wins to nine when he starts the odds-on favourite in the $1 million Group One Caulfield Guineas (1600m) this weekend.

If he wins he will join a select group to have won the Golden Slipper-Caulfield Guineas double - Manikato, Luskin Star, Vain and Storm Queen.

The premier race for two-year-olds, the first Golden Slipper was run the year after Tulloch's juvenile season.

Waterhouse said she believed the double was well within Pierro's grasp because the Slipper was normally the domain of sprinters but he had already shown he was much more versatile.

"I think it's because a lot of the horses who win the Golden Slipper are real sprinters whereas this horse's pedigree is quite dour," she said.

"You go down to his third dam, she won the Goodwood Gold Cup in England, so he's got a very dour mother line."

Pierro worked lightly at Flemington on Thursday morning in contrast to his sizzling times on Tuesday.

"He just did three-quarter pace, just a nice steady stretch extending to about 1200 metres," said Waterhouse, who added she fully expected his eye-opening track performance on Tuesday.

"Yes I was. He's a really, really good colt and you'll see that in the Guineas on Saturday," she said.

"He's done everything at present...and he's only kept to the elite level. He's quite exceptional."

Waterhouse said Pierro, who produced a dominant win in the Group Two Bill Stutt Stakes (1600m) at Moonee Valley last Friday week, would not be troubled by the quirky Caulfield track.

"I'm backing that he will handle it," she said.

"He handled the Valley, which I think is trickier than Caulfield.

"It's such a tight dish of a course and he handled that with aplomb the other night."

Waterhouse bypassed the $1 million Golden Rose in Sydney with Pierro in preference to the Bill Stutt in order to give the colt a spin around Moonee Valley ahead of the Cox Plate on October 27 for which he is the overwhelming favourite.

– AAP

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