After a public split between connections of Alligator Blood and previous trainer David Vandyke earlier in the week, it has been announced that Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott will train the star galloper moving forward.
Very grateful to @EndreszAllan and his family for sending us one of the country’s very best racehorses, ALLIGATOR BLOOD. Looking forward to him joining us at Tulloch Lodge and adding to his impressive CV 🐎 pic.twitter.com/vVHEi7hXeU
— Gai Waterhouse (@GaiWaterhouse1) November 24, 2020
Waterhouse was excited about securing a horse of such high caliber, excited to train the reigning Queensland Horse Of The Year, when speaking to racing.com.
The Best of the Autumn 2020 – The CS Hayes Stakes provided us with one of the most impressive duels of the year – Alligator Blood V Catalyst. What a battle! pic.twitter.com/QaRRLZUymN
— 7HorseRacing 🐎 (@7horseracing) April 27, 2020
“We’re thrilled. We’re thrilled to be training for the owners. We’re thrilled to have that quality of horse,” Waterhouse told racing.com on Wednesday morning.
“He’s such an exciting horse, such a beautiful horse and we’re hoping that we can even improve on what the previous trainer (David Vandyke) has done.”
Alligator Blood is set for some time in the paddock, as he requires surgery on a condition called ‘Kissing Spine’, with an estimated four-to-six month recovery.
“I don’t think it will be an issue at this stage,” Waterhouse said of the injury.
“We can work around it; I’ve had years of experience doing things like that.
“It probably gives him time to mature even further.”
