Platinum Attack’s near record run lands hat-trick but Neville’s feet firmly on the ground

The signs are all there but part-owner Neville McAlister isn’t getting carried away just yet with Platinum Attack despite his hat-trick win at Trentham.

The three-year-old notched his third win from only five starts on Saturday, reeling off the 1000 metres in a slick 55.27, just six one-hundredths of a second outside the track record set by Diamond Like when winning the Lightning Stakes on the course in 2003.

But McAlister, who races the three-year-old with Lincoln Farms’ John and Lynne Street, pointed out the horse benefited from a strong tail wind in his eye-catching charge down the home straight.

And McAlister said, while an exciting talent, Platinum Attack had a long way to go before he could match the deeds of their best sprinter Platinum Kingdom. The colt won nine of his 19 starts and showed he was competitive against the best Australian three-year-olds winning a Listed race at Randwick and a Group III race at Doomben before coming to an untimely end in 2013.

“This horse has beaten nothing yet - maidens and one-win horses - but that’s been deliberate, he’s still maturing mentally and learning how to race.

“He’s quite quirky, likes things his own way, and he’s got a bit of growing up to do.”

Platinum Attack runs wide at the junction into the home straight.While Platinum Attack’s performance earned him plenty of stars on Saturday he showed he still had plenty to learn, running away from the rest of the field when coming across the junction.

Despite being left exposed all of 500 metres from home, in-form apprentice Ace Lawson-Carroll still followed trainer Lisa Latta’s instructions, McAlister said, cuddling the horse up as long as he could.

“The horse did it on his own. Ace never went for him ’til the 200 and he didn’t draw the stick.”

Ace Lawson-Carroll’s treble on Saturday took his career tally to 42 in only three seasons’ riding.The 19-year-old justified Latta’s confidence in him later in the programme too, holding He’s A Doozy up for a rails run, which the trainer said would come, and charging through late for a convincing win, his third on the card.

Platinum Attack is now enjoying a week in the paddock before being set for a $65,000 three-year-old race at Trentham on April 6.

“It should be the same quality race so you’d think he’d be a good chance again.

“Whether he has one more race after that, or goes straight out we’ll see, but he’ll race only while the weather holds, we won’t be racing him on wet tracks.”

McAlister said the conditions at Trentham on Saturday were quite firm, according to the jockeys, allowing the horse to really stretch out.

“Even at Otaki at his previous start the soft 5 was borderline for him, that’s why we got him away from the watering strip on the inside.”

McAlister said it wasn’t surprising that Platinum Attack favoured good footing, Australian-bred horses not used to wet conditions.

The margin is only a long neck but Platinum Attack has Tightly Laced well covered at the finish. PHOTO: Peter Rubery/Race Images.Platinum Attack is by former fast juvenile Santos, a son of star stallion I Am Invincible, who was in the early markets for the Golden Slipper in 2018 after he won the Skyline Stakes.

But McAlister said he was influenced more by the maternal side of his breeding when he paid $37,000 for him at the Gold Coast weanling sale in 2021.

Dam Conchita, who won four races, including two at Randwick as a two-year-old, was from a very fast family.

“Hopefully he’ll keep on developing and, after a good break over winter, he’ll be fully grown and away we’ll go.”