Begood Toya Mother makes it six in a row

Begood Toya Mother could be the horse to give young trainer Daniel Bowman his first Group One success after the exciting gelding handled his first stakes test at Caulfield with aplomb to extend his winning sequence.

Bowman has next month’s Group One Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes at Caulfield in his sights with the five-year-old gelding who showed he was on track for that 1400m handicap with his all-the-way win in Saturday’s Listed Regal Roller Stakes (1200m).

It was the sixth-straight win for Begood Toya Mother who was resuming from a let-up having pieced together five wins in lesser grade during his unbeaten previous preparation.

Sent out the $2.60 favourite on Saturday, Begood Toya Mother crossed to the lead under jockey Declan Bates and responded strongly in the straight when Haunted loomed on his inside to challenge.

He defeated Haunted by 1-1/2-lengths with two lengths to multiple Group One placegetter Fundamentalist.

“It’s more of a relief than anything,” Warnambool-based Bowman said.

“You come out of the winter with all this hype and you’ve just got to try to keep a lid on it. You sort of know deep down that he goes really well but you’ve got to see them do it at that better level.

“He put them to the sword today and they couldn’t keep up.

“It’s a good race to win. Good horses win it. You’ve only got to look back at the honour roll.

“But we’ll find out in five or six weeks time how good he really is.”

Bowman will see how Begood Toya Mother pulls up before deciding whether he runs at Caulfield in two weeks or at The Valley a week later in preparation for the Rupert Clarke third-up on September 21.

The trainer believes Begood Toya Mother is the type of horse that could help his business “take that next step” but is still unsure where the ceiling is with the gelding whose overall record is now seven wins from 11 starts.

“We thought he had improved. His work had shown that,” he said.

“You still want to see it on race day.

“Who knows where we’ll get to.”