Starry Heights does the job in Boulder Cup for dynamic training combination

Starry Heights’ victory in last month’s $125,000 Blue Spec Drilling Boulder Cup (2116m) was the crowning glory on a stellar day for the training duo of Grant and Alana Williams and champion jockey William Pike.

Of Pike’s five winners, four were for the Williams combination — beginning earlier in the day with Kratesis ($2.45), Date With The Devil ($1.65 favourite) and Colossal ($1.75 favourite).

Pike’s success in the Boulder Cup was backed-up in the last event when he piloted the Peter Fernie-trained Secret Attraction ($1.24 favourite) to a win over 1760m in the $30,000 Widdesons Handicap (1760m).

Despite being outshone in the Boulder Cup, Fernie matched the Williams’ four winners with Secret Style ($2.70 favourite), Dont Wait For Luck ($1.40 favourite) and Lucky Lily ($3.10 favourite) preceding Secret Attraction’s win.

It was a second straight Boulder Cup win for Pike and the Williams training combination, who scored with Villeins last year.

At return to scale, Grant Williams’ father Ray, a part-owner of Starry Heights, was emotional.

“This is incredible, I can’t believe it,” Ray Williams said.

“It was a great effort because he was stepping up in distance.

“Grant has always thought he needed more distance to show his best and was confident he would handle the 2100m today.”

Ray Williams is known for being conservative but he dropped his guard after the Boulder Cup.

“We’ll be here (at the winner’s stall) again on Kalgoorlie Cup day,” he said.

Last year, the powerful combination of Pike and Grant and Alana Williams were on the cusp of a clean-sweep of Kalgoorlie’s cups treble after teaming up to win the Boulder Cup with Villeins.

WA’s leading jockey and co-trainers won the Coolgardie Cup (1760m) with Crescent City a fortnight earlier and former Sydney galloper Villeins proved he was on track for the Kalgoorlie Cup (2300m).

Heavily backed into $2.15 favouritism, Villeins looked in trouble when stranded in eighth position at the 600m and battling to make ground.

But Pike weaved his magic, saving ground with an inside run before extricating Villeins off the fence to find clear running early in the straight.

The Domesday gelding ran on strongly to beat Be Optimistic ($3.80) by 1¾ lengths, with Dancing Jack ($61) running third.

Coolgardie-born Pike won his first Boulder Cup and booted home three winners.

“I think he’s the perfect type of horse for these races,” Pike said of Villeins.

“He’s still young, hasn’t been too heavily tried, a lot of our competition’s seen most of Australia and he went well.

“I don’t know how far he’ll actually be as a stayer, but you can’t win a race like that and not have a look at the next one.”

Villeins recorded one win from seven starts in Sydney before joining the in-form Williams’ stable.

Part-owned by Fremantle Dockers football manager and former star Peter Bell, Villeins had thrived in WA with four wins and three placings.

“He’s been racing these horses a little bit with no tempo at home and we got some tempo today,” Grant Williams said.

“We didn’t look like we were travelling that good, but Pikey’s the best at summing up that situation, taking short-cuts and you’re hoping they’ll come back to you more than anything.

“We’ll definitely have a crack at that (Kalgoorlie Cup) now.”

Trainer Dan Morton essentially made the Boulder Cup (2100m) his own during the past decade after grabbing more success with Stafford’s Lad in the 2022 Listed feature.

Ridden by WA’s leading hoop Chris Parnham, Stafford’s Lad ($5) ran on from fifth and wore down Coolgardie Cup winner No Apology ($4.20) late to win by a long head.

Stafford’s Lad improved significantly on his last-start sixth in the Coolgardie Cup (1760m).

Morton also won the Boulder Cup in 2012 with Belora and in 2014 with Red Blast.

“It was sort of heart-in-your-mouth stuff,” Morton said after the race.

“He doesn’t like getting cluttered up, this horse — he’s a proper stayer and I could see Chris was in a fair bit of pain.

“He was trying his best to get out a fair way out. Luckily out on the Charles Street side he put him into the race just in time.

“He’s been a ripper. Credit to BJ Ryan, he identified the horse for us early days and found him for us literally for a Broome Cup. That didn’t come about but he’s turned into a very good horse.

“He’s a dour, proper stayer, and he loves these races.”

Friar Fox the year before became the first winner of back-to-back Boulder Cups in more than 70 years when she lifted late to score a thrilling win.

The consistent Justine Erkelens-trained stayer charged home for jockey Shaun O’Donnell to gun down the leader, Bella’s Idol, in the concluding stages to win narrowly.

Bella’s Idol held second after shooting clear of rivals on the turn, and Coolgardie Cup winner Living The Dream was third.

Friar Fox overcame a 4kg rise on her Boulder Cup (2100m) triumph in 2020 to match Trecratic, who won the historic race in 1946 before dead-heating with Chatalong the following year.

After struggling on Belmont Park’s wet tracks in the winter, Friar Fox relished a return to the Goldfields when running second in the Coolgardie Cup (1760m) before scoring her third stakes victory.

“That’s bloody awesome,” an elated Erkelens said.

“She’s just done everything perfect because she did it all last year, so it was easy. She ran the same race as last year. She’s tough and she’ll just fight.

“Today she just jumped on the bunny. She’s never raced that close and when they chucked on the tempo I thought, ‘I’m still going easy’.

“Didn’t she dig deep when I asked her?

“It was an amazing win.

“In the winter she is hopeless.

“Bring her up here and she just loves it.”

O’Donnell, who also won the Boulder Cup on Friar Fox in 2020 and Ask Me Nicely in 2015, is the first jockey to win the race in consecutive years since Stephen Miller in 1992 and 1993.