Rose to bloom as Bruce aims for biggest career win

The stars could be aligning for trainer Jack Bruce who is aiming for his biggest career win in the week he has moved into headquarters at Eagle Farm.

Bruce kicked off his training career 3½ years ago and started with a bang when he scored the Listed Weetwood Handicap at Toowoomba with Axe only a few months into the job in 2022.

That remains his biggest career win but on Saturday he will try to conquer a new frontier by winning a Group 3 race, deploying progressive filly Highgrove Rose in the $300,000 Grand Prix Stakes (3YO) at Eagle Farm.

It comes as Bruce started a fresh chapter of his training career, now having 15 horses at Eagle Farm while retaining a stable at Deagon.

"This week, I had my first day training at Eagle Farm and I have a Group 3 runner on Saturday, it almost feels like it is a new beginning," Bruce said.

"I won a stakes race almost straight away in my training career when Axe won the Weetwood and three and a half years later I'm trying to win my first Group race."

Highgrove Rose, who Bruce purchased as a yearling for $200,000 at Magic Millions, is an $11 chance to give the trainer a new career highlight by winning the Grand Prix (1800m).

She broke her maiden at her most recent start, winning a Sunshine Coast Sunday race over 1600m, but Bruce has always felt the three-year-old filly has been destined to be a stayer.

He gave her a couple of starts in stakes races during the Queensland winter carnival and felt she was strong at the end and pinpointed her as a potential Group 1 Queensland Oaks filly in 2026.

"I bought her at Magic Millions and she was a big, rangy type, possibly given the type of horse physically that a lot of people are looking for at Magic Millions, she may have fallen through the cracks," Bruce said.

"When I started working her, I had a good opinion of her, I took her to those two-year-old stakes races.

"She really did look like she was looking for 2000 (m), so this preparation I've had a view to getting her up in trip.

"I have had her pegged as an Oaks filly and when she was spelled, she was spelled literally with this race on Saturday as a target race for this preparation.

"And then the plan would be to figure out a way to get to the Oaks from there."

The Grand Prix looks harder to pick than a broken nose, with formlines converging from everywhere from both Queensland and NSW.

Bruce admits it is difficult to assess, but is certain his filly will appreciate 1800m and the wide, open expanses of Eagle Farm.

"She has to measure up against some Sydneysiders and some of the better staying three-year-olds here," Bruce said.

"Knowing that the opposition does have different formlines, it makes it challenging to know how she is going to go.

"But having said that, she has always been a horse who relaxes well and I feel like she will eat up 1800m.

"She needs those big open spaces and I have always viewed her as being tailor made for a race like this at Eagle Farm.

"It is just a matter of how talented some of her rivals are."

Even though she was purchased at Magic Millions, Bruce indicated it was unlikely he would drop her back in distance to the 1400m of next month's $3m Gold Coast Magic Millions 3YO Guineas.

If she runs up to expectations on Saturday, Highgrove Rose could then race in the Eagle Way (2100m) at Eagle Farm on January 3 before being spelled with a 2026 Oaks campaign in mind.

Original article published on Racenet, 19th December 2025 - https://www.racenet.com.au/news/trainer-jack-bruces-breakthrough-group-hopes-rise-at-eagle-farm-with-highgrove-rose-in-grand-prix-stakes-20251219?timestamp=1766174969993