Photo by Stuart McCormick
ANDY and Kate Gath are no strangers to leading or winning the Trotting Masters series.
They have won two of the past five with Majestuoso (2022) and Tornado Valley (2020), but neither of them expected an early lead this year with Watts Up Partytime.
The unheralded five-year-old caused a monstrous upset, not once but twice, when he won a heat and final of the Great Southern Star at Melton.
The series always looked like a changing of the guard with Just Believe retired and Callmethebreeze sidelined by injury, but Watts Up Partytime was never really on the radar.
“Never in my wildest dream did I think he’d win,” Andy Gath said.
Kate Gath added: “I told Andy he was crazy when he said he was running him in the Great Southern Star.”
Most felt Watts Up Partytime’s heat win, despite sitting parked, was a bit of a fluke so he went out a $61 shot in a final expected to be dominated by impressive opening heat winner The Locomotive.
Kate Gath happily slotted into a three-peg run and couldn’t believe how well the gelding was travelling when a gap appeared at the top of the home straight.
“We still felt too far, but he just picked up and zoomed through the gap when it came. He’s only small, but gee he’s got some speed,” she said.
“I’ll happily admit I got that one wrong. It was as much a surprise to me as anyone else that he was able to come out and win a race like this.”
Gath said the surprise win and Watts Up Partytime’s love for short course racing could see him chase the second leg of the Trotting Masters, the $100,000 Hammerhead Mile, at Menangle on Miracle Mile night (March 8).
Significantly, Watts Up Partytime is bred and raced by the NSW-based Brad Watts.
“It makes it even sweeter to win a race like this for someone like Brad, who has put so much into the game and breeds his own horses,” Andy Gath said.
