Across hemispheres – The Piggott-Pilkington link behind Inglis Sires’ bid

Outwardly, Am I Dreaming is a modestly priced yearling with an unassuming profile who would seem ill-equipped for a monumental challenge that awaits.

Delve deeper into the story, and you will find the colt is as well-connected as any horse in the race to ensure he can run above expectations in the Inglis Sires’ at Randwick on Saturday.

Beneath the $35,000 outlay and looking beyond the inexperience of a young trainer jostling for recognition in a Group 1 race for the first time, there is a sense of having nothing to lose.

In no way should it be interpreted as a misplaced belief.

Am I Dreaming’s trainer Jack Pilkington has served an apprenticeship in racing that has crossed many international borders and would be the envy of most.

Stints with Chris Waller, Ciaron Maher, Mark Newnham and David Hayes added the finishing touches to the domestic art of conditioning racehorses.

But there’s an even more famous name in the thoroughbred world than Waller and Maher, who is an integral part of this ambitious bid to scale racing’s greatest height off the back of a provincial win.

Buried away among a plethora of Am I Dreaming’s owners listed in the racebook is Jamie Piggott, the son of legendary UK jockey Lester Piggott.

Piggott’s involvement is yet another example of how geography in racing is now little more than a detail.

Originally from Ireland, Pilkington has established a stable at Hawkesbury on Sydney’s north-western outskirts.

Piggott keeps a daily tab on his close friend’s foray into the training ranks from Newmarket in England, the spiritual home of racing, where he is gaining traction as a respected bloodstock agent with a global outlook.

“If you’re not watching everywhere, then you’re falling behind,” Piggott told The Straight.

“It’s a first-world problem, but because I love my racing, it doesn’t feel like a job going through results and listening to updates.

“It’s a wonderful part of the job, just seeing how everybody in every corner of the world – all these trainers – do things differently

“And we’re all trying to end up with the same goal.”

Piggott’s map has long included Australia, first through his father’s travels and later through his own work on the ground.

“It’s like a second home, really,” he says.

But that familiarity has been earned, not inherited.

He rode trackwork here, spent time in leading stables and absorbed the cadence of a training system that is much more hustle and bustle than morning gallops on Newmarket’s Warren Hill.

Piggott’s friendship with Pilkington is one of repeated intersections.

“We just sort of kept running into each other, be it around Europe or in Dubai … and then back in Australia when we were both riding,” he says.

When Pilkington began training in Australia, the connection became something more tangible.

“I offered to give him a hand and help buy him his first horse … and just kept a share,” Piggott says.

That horse, Alabama State, was bought for $80,000 and laid the groundwork.

“It’s been a joy to see Jack go from strength to strength and be a part of that,” he says.

Am I Dreaming followed, sourced on instinct during the secondary part of the 2025 Gold Coast Yearling Sale.

“He was just one of those horses that stuck in your mind and you always went back to,” Piggott says.

“He’s a smart, athletic horse and at the end of the day you can go through the motions as many times as you like, but those athletes have something you can’t quite put your finger on. 

“They’re often the ones that end up being standouts.”

Pilkington needed little convincing, and the path since has been deliberate, even if the destination has arrived quickly.

There has been a shift in the conversation from possibility to opportunity, despite a quantum leap from the junior league to racing horses such as Streisand, the Blue Diamond Stakes winner and Golden Slipper runner-up.

“So far, everything has gone as well as we’d hoped,” Piggott says.

“Jack has never led me wrong, so I don’t question it,” he says.

Call it a trust built over years and an appetite for learning from the best in the business, with the hope that one day the best will become your rivals.

“It’s been great to see that what he always wanted to do come into his hands,” Piggott says.

“Jack has never led me wrong, so I don’t question it,” – Jamie Piggott

In a sport increasingly dominated by scale, their partnership carries a quieter significance.

“If we can’t support the small trainer, then the whole sport will be gone before we know it,” Piggott says.

Pilkington arrives at Randwick as an outlier in the Sires’, one of only two non-city trainers in the race.

That alone gives the moment extra weight.

“For a trainer like him, it’s important to have these horses that keep you in front of people’s minds,” Piggott says.

It’s not lost on Piggott, although ownership is not always his end game.

“We do plenty of trading because we have to,” he says of a UK model under increasing funding pressure.

But ones like Am I Dreaming can sometimes shift the balance.

“It’s my job to buy horses that are commercial enough to trade, as well as be enjoyable,” he says.

“It’s a pleasure to stay in on horses like these (Am I Dreaming).”

For now, though, the focus narrows to a single race, one horse and a shared ambition.

“I couldn’t be more excited for Jack,” he says.

And for a colt bought on feel, carried by friendship and shaped by a global game, that might just be enough.