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By Brad Gray

Thronum gave the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott partnership their first ever victory in the Rosebud last year and the stable will be hoping history repeats with Siege Of Quebec on Saturday.

“It’d certainly be nice to pick the race up again,” Bott said.

“I’m very happy with how the season has gone. We’re always looking for ways to improve on things though so hopefully we can use it as a stepping stone going forward.”

Siege Of Quebec has made a big impression in his two starts to date and currently sits as one of early fancies for the Golden Rose at $15 with TAB. In his latest outing his trademark fight was again on display, in taking the scalp of Calculated over 1400m.

“He has a little bit of time between races now to freshen up and get that speed back into his legs for the 1100m. The horse does have a very good turn of foot and we’ll see it again on Saturday,” Bott said.

“He is well weighted against those horses that have already proven themselves at the top level. He is a horse on the up and has the advantage of race fitness so it looks an ideal starting point for his Golden Rose campaign.

“He hasn’t had to do as much as he is race fit so we’ve just ticked him over, keeping him happy and keeping him sound.”

The Fastnet Rock colt is a full brother to Bull Point, who ran fourth in the Rosebud before placing third in the 2013 Golden Rose, and it’s uncanny how similar their preparations have been to this point, but none of it has been by design.

“There has been nothing deliberate about that,” Bott said. “We’ve give then horse plenty of time to mature and been very patient with him. He showed plenty of natural talent early on and we took him down to Melbourne for a Flemington jump out early in the spring but decided to give him more time as he was still maturing physically.”

“We always knew we had a nice horse on our hands and wanted to look after him. We put him away in favour of producing him as a late two-year-old and roll into the spring as an early three-year-old.”

Meanwhile, Arbeitsam, who was accepted for in two races at Rosehill, has been scratched from the 1500m assignment in preference of stepping back out to the 1800m journey.

“We went the 1800m way mainly due to the fact that he gets a bit of weight relief being down on the limit on 53kg as opposed to having to carry the 61.5kg,” Bott explained.

“He is versatile enough to stretch out to the 1800m which he has already proven this preparation. He is fit, well and deep into his campaign now.”

Arbeitsam’s has traversed through the grades in a very similar manner to that of stablemate Fabrizio last year which saw him end up running one of the favourites in a Group One Epsom Handicap. However, there are more immediate targets on Bott’s mind.

“There is the potential there but I’m not sure we’ll look to go that path. There’s the race on Saturday and then a fortnight after that it opens a couple of really nice options. It’s whether we got to Hawkesbury for the Rowley Mile or back to Rosehill in two weeks for the Premier’s Cup,” Bott said.

“They are very similar in that they are going through their grades and are honest, tough horses. They have both good high cruising speeds and are able to accelerate and sustain those speeds. When they are able to do that they are always difficult to beat.”

Bott also confirmed that The Everest hopefuls English and Global Glamour are still a couple of weeks off trialling while the same can be said for three-year-old filly Woman, who being by Frankel and out of More Joyous, will create plenty of interest when she steps out on debut.

All of the replays, form and fields for Rosehill Gardens on Saturday