Northerly on Storyville’s agenda, Western Empire a “huge chance” in Winterbottom

WA Guineas winner Storyville will run in the Group 1 Northerly Stakes (1800m) at Ascot in a fortnight.

The three-year-old filly, trained by Alana and Grant Williams, stormed over the top to score in the Guineas (1600m) under the urgings of Willie Pike on Saturday.

Next on the agenda is the Northerly which a trio of three-year-old fillies have won in the last six years, including Arcadia Queen who won for the Williams’ in 2018.

“Yeah, that’s the plan,” Alana Williams said on SENTrack’s Giddy Up when asked if the Northerly was next.

“The fillies cop the short end of the stick a bit. They ran on Melbourne Cup Day, they ran 11 days later in the Champion Fillies, and then they have to back up a week later. So it’s quite a rigorous three weeks for them.

“We’ll see how she comes through the run. We’re taking her to the beach this week just to freshen her a little bit.

“All going well and if she can give us a nice piece of work towards the end of the week then our eyes will be on the following week where we can have a crack at the big one.”

At present, Storyville is the $6 second favourite with Sportsbet for the Northerly which is run at Ascot on December 7. Mitch Freedman’s Toorak Handicap winner Attrition ($5) is the favourite.

This coming weekend, the Williams duo will saddle up Western Empire in the Group 1 Winterbottom Stakes (1200m).

He is a Group 1 Railway winner over 1600m in 2021, but has been set for a sprint campaign this time around.

As he gets older, Williams feels Western Empire will become more suited to shorter trips given his ability to change gears.

“I think he’s a huge chance,” Williams said of the seven-year-old gelding.

“After his last prep, that’s what we set him to do. We thought we’d give him three runs, because obviously his first three runs last prep we thought were his best (when winning twice).

“Although he’s won up to 2400m, he’s just a fast horse with a lot of gears. He can sprint, he can go mile, he can go further if we wanted him to.

“But this is what we targeted. I think he’s a big chance on Saturday, he’s very well and we’re really looking forward to that.

“He is very capable of doing different things. He’ll sprint as well as he can run a mile or further.

“This is just what we decided to do for him. He’s a little bit more fragile than he used to be so that’s why we’ve targeted shorter preps with him.”

Western Empire is also the $6 second favourite for the Winterbottom, behind Bjorn Baker’s Overpass who won the race last year.

Williams also named Buckets Ridge as the horse from her stable, outside the obvious, that punters should follow this summer.

The winner of five races from 14 starts is being aimed at the Perth Cup (2400m) at Ascot on New Year’s Day.

Image credit: Sharyn Walker / Western Racepix

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