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When trainer Toby Edmonds picked up the little white ball that read ’16’ during the barrier draw for the Golden Slipper many thought that might be it for the pre-race favourite, but Edmonds has been far from worried.
In her four-race career, Houtzen has made a habit of snagging terrible barrier draws, yet remains undefeated since her debut run at the QTIS Handicap in Doomben on Christmas Eve last year.
The most famous of those instances came in the Magic Millions two-year-old Classic in January.
Despite drawing Barrier 16, as she has for the Slipper, in a field of 16, Houtzen bolted out of the gates, coming all the way around the outside on the first bend to settle in on the fence ahead of the entire field.
The sheer power and speed out of the barrier was a thing of beauty as she somehow went from being the worst positioned horse in the race to the best leading into the final stretch.
Equally impressive was her reluctance to let up late in the race, as if she hadn’t lost an ounce of energy from the jump.
To prove it wasn’t a fluke, Edmonds pulled out the widest possible gate for her next start, at Eagle Farm, coming out of 9 in a nine-horse field.
Carrying six kilos more than the next heaviest runner, the filly ran a near-identical race to her previous efforts.
She bounced out of the barriers and was already in front of the pack by a length inside the first 200 metres, leading from wire to wire to take out the 1000-metre handicap by four lengths, as the only runner in the field to finish under the one-minute mark.
Edmonds and his rivals for the Slipper know the power she carries from out wide and has not been deterred by the usually unfavourable barrier draw.
“She’s that electric from the barrier – she doesn’t make a mistake and we don’t expect her to make a mistake on Saturday,” said Edmonds.
“I expect her to lead from that barrier. She’s a speed horse and such a good gate horse. She comes out fast and can cross them with the others a second behind.
“I would like one day for her to get a good barrier and take a sit.”
Edmonds also expressed his confidence in their position with the current weather forecast for Rosehill on Saturday looking like producing a slightly heavier track.
“I was a bit deflated to start with but you look at the weather outside right now… It might be the best barrier,” he said after the barrier draw during the week.
“If you draw close and you get that pressure from the outside we could end up in an awkward spot in behind horses and copping a lot of the backwash, so the draw might not be that bad.”
While the bookies have been jumping all over the place trying to find the right price for Houtzen, she’s a big favourite to take out the biggest and richest two-year-old classic on the calendar.
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