Three-year-old sensation King Of Light might be the talk of the west but the Grant and Alana Williams stable are confident they'll go into the Dec. 6 Northerly Stakes (G1) with two undeniably strong chances in Western Empire and Watch Me Rock.
Shooting to remain unbeaten at his sixth start, the Dan Morton-trained King Of Light is a dominant favorite for the 1,800-meter (about 1 1/8-mile) Ascot feature at around AU$2.50 after his sizzling last-start win in the WA Guineas (G2).
WA racing byword Willie Pike was aboard that day, while he also rode Watch Me Rock to victory in the meeting's feature, the Railway Stakes (G1).
Pike has chosen to ride King Of Light at the 52 kilograms in the Northerly, which is perhaps unsurprising. For one thing, he can manage the weight comfortably. For another, while Watch Me Rock was impressive in winning the Railway, he carried only 54 kilograms under its handicap conditions, and will have 59 kilograms as he tackles weight-for-age for the first time this Saturday.
Bookmakers have the 5-year-old gelding at around AU$11 for Western Australia's last group 1 of the season, while proven weight-for-age performer Western Empire shares the second line of betting at AU$7 with Michael Grantham's Cosmic Crusader, a comfortable last-start winner of Ascot's Carbine Club Stakes.
Remarkable 8-year-old Western Empire—who ran a three-quarter-length second in Watch Me Rock's Railway—came second in this race as a 4-year-old in 2021, is a three-time winner at weight-for-age, from 1,400 meters to 1,600 meters, and has been placed at up to 2,000 meters.
Watch Me Rock's longest trip has been the 1,800 meters he'll encounter Saturday, for a Class 1 third and a victory in Ascot's non-black-type handicap, the GF Stakes last April, by a neck in an eight-horse field.
Despite their contrasting weight-for-age histories and the bookmakers' assessment, Alana Williams said she found it hard to split Watch Me Rock and Western Empire.
While conceding King Of Light looked highly exciting, she feels her stable's main pair both have strong claims in the AU$1.5 million event.
"We've got two really good chances. I can't really separate them," Williams told ANZ News.
"I'd possibly lean a little to Western Empire at the weights but I wouldn't put it beyond Watch Me Rock to elevate and show us he's still got more to give.
"Watch Me Rock has ticked over beautifully since winning the Railway. Obviously, he's got to come up another level to weight-for-age, but he's a horse who we've never really got to the bottom of yet, so we're looking forward to that challenge."
While he'd previously won nine of 16 starts, Williams said Watch Me Rock had "gone to another level" since the addition of blinkers at the start of this campaign, in which he's also won the Asian Beau Stakes (G3).
"It took a long time for him to learn to get over the line first, but once he did he hasn't looked back," Williams said. "He was always playing and going so easily, but once we put the blinkers on him and he learnt how to be serious, we really learnt how good he was."
The gelding has now won 11 of 19 starts, for nearly $1.6 million in earnings.
Western Empire will achieve a rare feat by simply competing in two editions of the Northerly four years apart.
In 2021, looking to extend his Perth-style picket fence to seven, the then exciting 4-year-old did it tough in racing wide under Pike from barrier nine of 10, ultimately recording a brave half-length second.
"He's eight years old but you wouldn't know it," Williams said. "He's an old marvel. It's not easy for them to race at that level but he just does it year in, year out. We don't give him too many runs, we look after him and he seems to do a good job."
Originally a homebred for WA mega-breeder Bob Peters, Western Empire has won 11 of his 33 starts, for $3.3 million. He's now raced by a syndicate of three headed by Alana Williams, which comes after the stable branched away from being Peters' private trainers to go public in early 2022.
Watch Me Rock's Railway victory was the husband-and-wife operation's first elite success as public trainers. Williams said taking a second this Saturday would be "a dream."
"Obviously it'd be huge," she said. "Group 1s are what we're chasing. We want to race at this level. Winning our first one in the Railway meant a lot to us, and if we can pick off another one it'd be a huge bonus."
The Williams stable will also have a third Northerly runner in Hemlock Stone. The 6-year-old, who'll be ridden by Austin Galati, is a AU$51 longshot en route to seeking back-to-back titles in the Perth Cup (G2) Jan. 1.
"He should still run a cheeky race," Williams said of the "quirky" gelding. "It might be a little bit beyond him to win but I've learnt with this horse to never say never, because he keeps on surprising us."
