Infinite Wisdom will get smarter
Stephen Gray's newcomer opens account in style in Race 2 yesterday
It's been a well-documented fact in trainer Stephen Gray's yard that Infinite Wisdom isn't as wise as his name seems to suggest.
But that's only when he's at the start and getting ready to race.
Other than that, he is, well pretty smart. Like yesterday, when he opened his Kranji account on debut.
If anything, it was an eye-opener and, as Gray said, there were plenty of people to thank for Infinite Wisdom's win.
According to Gray, Infinite Wisdom needed a good dose of patience at the barriers before the penny dropped.
"He's been quite naughty in the barriers, he even sat down in there at a couple of trials," said the Kiwi handler.
"He was terrible with his jumps, too. He was ready to race before the Covid-19, but we had to bring him back to barrier education.
"The starters helped us a lot. A big thank you to them. He won his last barrier trial but we weren't sure how he would go at his first start, especially from a wide barrier, but he was well behaved."
Infinite Wisdom didn't just jump well. He jumped to the front in that 1,200m race and that was "game over".
Said Gray: "I told Simon that if he jumped well, to go forward and keep him out of trouble."
That, he did and, just like that, the larrikin came good.
Half the battle was won when Infinite Wisdom beat rivals on his inside for speed to settle on the steel after 200m.
Well rated by champion apprentice jockey Simon Kok Wei Hoong, Infinite Wisdom ($47) still had the close attention of odds-on favourite Day Approach (Louis-Philippe Beuzelin) and Bruce Alnaughty (Joseph See) to contend with into the home straight.
But Gray's new acquisition for stalwart owner Paul Hickman of St George Stable still had plenty left in the locker.
With Day Approach taking a while to warm up on the inside and Bruce Alnaughty unable to muster that killer blow, Infinite Wisdom kept at it to win with more than a length to spare.
Gray said it was his bloodstock agent Garry Carvell who spotted Infinite Wisdom at the Gold Coast Magic Million Yearling Sale last year.
"He's related to a very good horse Paul (Hickman) had in New Zealand.
"Garry picked him out at the sales and we bought him for A$70,000, which is cheap," Gray continued.
"Paul took a share and we kept a quarter share. He thought he'd send him up here for the two-year-old races, but after they were cancelled, he will go for the three-year-old races.
"As for his name, we were sitting around for drinks one night, and Paul said: 'In my infinite wisdom'. That's a great saying from Paul, he likes to say that, and that's how we named the horse.
"Anyway, Paul has a lot of infinite wisdom."
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