Immortal Bliss has quickly made his mark in Western Australia, emerging as a standout recruit for leading co-trainers Grant and Alana Williams.
The South Australian import extended his unbeaten local record with a commanding victory at Belmont on Saturday, bringing up his second win since arriving in the west.
Sent out the raging favourite and delivering jockey William Pike his fourth win in a stellar day in the saddle, Immortal Bliss justified market confidence and hinted at better things to come.
Co-trainer Grant Williams says Immortal Bliss is a horse with a motor and when the penny drops completely on race day, there is a serious sprinting win in him.
“Physically it looks like he could race in top company,” Williams said on Tabradio.
“His work at home is pretty good as well and his mental thing is something we are working through.
“I think that will improve with more racing and Larns (Alana) thinks he’s got a nice race in him, and I’ll always go by that.
“I thought his mental attitude was better this week and I would love to get him up over 1200m and I think he’ll be even better when he does that.
“He just needs to learn to settle a bit better at the moment.”
Before joining the Williams stable, Immortal Bliss won two races from nine starts fort Peter Hardacre in South Australia and came to the west almost by chance, but it’s proving to be the right move.
“We got a phone call off the owner asking if we were interested and obviously, we always are,” Williams said.
“He had form in good races over there, I saw some photos of him, watched some replays and saw that he was an imposing type.
“I thought we should have a crack at that and as soon as he got off the truck, we were pretty excited.
“As soon as we started working him we were just as excited.
“Hopefully we can do a good job with him.”
Stable mate Sensessional was another hot favourite to salute for the stable, taking out the main feature: the $100,000 Blue Spec Stakes (1600m).
The in-form Sessions gelding previously claimed the Jockey Celebration Day Stakes (1400m) and is thriving this campaign, undefeated this time in.
Williams is keen to keep Sensessional racing in the next couple of weeks, striking while he’s in peak form and moderating Ascot carnival plans later this year.
“We may attack some of the lesser races around the carnival,” Williams said.
“If he had to come up against the proper Group 1 horses, he maybe is a touch off them.
“Our trick now is to find the best races for him and try and earn as much stake money as we can.
“That will be in the next three or four weeks then it becomes tougher for him.
“We’re always pretty honest with where he's at.”
Williams also said Petrouchka was much improved on Satutday when a hard running fourth to Objectify and a trip to Kalgoorlie is being considered for her.
Julio Santarelli