Saturday Preview: The juveniles setting themselves up for spring success

Cover image courtesy of The Image Is Everything

Currie chasing last season stakes victory with Winnasedge

Jockey Luke Currie and Nick Ryan will be teaming up again in the G3 Bletchingly Stakes at Caulfield on Saturday in search of back-to-back Group wins for 4-year-old Winnasedge (Cliff’s Edge), who gave his sire his first stakes winner in the G3 Sir John Monash Stakes.

Currie rode the gelding early in his career, including for his first two wins, and was in the saddle for the Group victory on July 11.

“’I thought he was going to be a really nice horse,’’ Currie recalled when talking to racingandsports.com.au. “He was a bit hot and did a few things wrong, but he had a huge turn of foot, and I think each preparation he has just changed himself a bit and is a bit more adaptable now.

“Nick told me last time that he was the fit horse as there were a few horses that were coming back. His level seems to be rising, and I think he ticks a few boxes going into this and if he gets it right, he's going to have a good chance on Saturday.’’

Four of Winnasedge’s six wins have been over 1100 metres, but Currie is confident that the step up to the Bletchingly’s 1200 metres is well within the gelding’s capabilities.

“The 1100 (metres) is probably his sweet spot, but from where he's drawn (barrier five), he's got the speed to land in a nice spot,’’ Currie said. “I wouldn't think he has to get back as far as he did the other day, especially over 1200 (metres). I think he's a beautiful ride.’’

The 2-year-olds winding up for big springs

The beginning of August is just a week away, and 2-year-olds all over the country are preparing to launch into the spring as 3-year-olds with lofty goals. John O’Shea and Tom Charlton will send out smart filly Scintillation (I Am Invincible) in the first race at Randwick with the intent of picking up more black-type as she turns three.

The filly was a winner on debut at Gosford in the autumn, before heading south to run third in the G3 Ottawa Stakes at Flemington.

“We thought it was an opportunity to pick up some black type and see where she was fitting in, and there’s no reason why she shouldn’t continue to go from strength to strength,’’ Charlton said.

“We’re hopeful she might be able to pick up some more black-type this spring. There’s a couple of stakes options, maybe moreso in Melbourne at some point, I guess it’ll be dependent on her performance.”

The Rosemont Stud-owned filly will have no easy field to compete with, headed by multiple Group performer Eviction Notice (Stay Inside), plus R. Listed Inglis Nursery winner Where’s The Circus (Trapeze Artist) and recent impressive winners Half Pipe (Extreme Warrior) and No Limits (Exceedance).

“She’s had a productive 2-year-old campaign and looks to have returned well with a couple of trials,’’ Charlton said. “She’s pretty versatile, naturally puts herself in a good position, and can do anything so (the barrier) gives her plenty of options.

“It looks a strong enough race but from a good gate she should be able to run well.”

Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott will be hoping that Eviction Notice can announce himself for a race like the Listed Rosebud with his performance on Saturday.

“He's come back very well and he's doing things much better this preparation,’’ Bott told RSN on Friday. “That should help him sustain a longer 'prep', and open up a few options later on.’’

It is a nine-day turnaround from Eviction Notice's most recent start, and he has been hit with the top weight, having placed in the G3 Canonbury Stakes and the G2 Silver Slipper Stakes in the autumn.

“There are a few things against him, but he is better for that first run, and I thought that would end up being a pretty good form race,’’ Bott said. “He has been gelded this prep, which is where we've seen the biggest change mentally.

“He used to be in a bit of a rush at times. He's got an abundance of speed, but it's how he utilises that because at times, he was wanting to get the race over and done with.’’

Down at Caulfield, the Ciaron Maher stable launches the preparations of two juveniles headed towards different trips. Debut winner and Listed Blue Diamond Preview (colts & geldings) placegetter Milson’s Point (Blue Point {Ire}) has been gelded since the $1 million VOBIS Showdown and will look to get out to a mile in the spring.

“He's a big lad,’’ said Jack Turnbull, the National Assistant Trainer for Ciaron Maher Racing. “Last prep he was strong as a colt, but he has softened up a touch as a gelding. He is a miler, that's his future, so he'll go up in trip pretty quick.

“We're pleased with how he's come back, but his grand finals are down the track. The Caulfield Guineas would be his grand final, but we don't know if he's good enough. We'll give him his chance to get there in races like the Mike Moroney at Flemington, the Prelude or the Stutt Stakes.’’

Stablemate Ghana’s Akan (Street Boss {USA}) is still a maiden, but was second in both the $150,000 Geelong Diamond and the R. Listed Inglis Millennium won by future G1 Champagne Stakes winner Fireball (Snitzel), before running fifth in the G1 Blue Diamond Stakes.

“She's a talented filly that put the writing on the wall last prep,’’ Turnbull said. “She's strengthened up but will be better again coming out of the spring into the autumn. She's quick, she had a nice trial last week and she's cleaned up in the skin.’’

The G3 Quezette Stakes on August 15 is next on the agenda for the filly if she comes through Saturday well.

“The three weeks should work well, so that's her path,’’ Turnbull said. “I think she's more short course. That's the way we see her, and I think the 1100 and 1200 metres is her go this prep.’’

Maher keen on Aeolian’s right royal changes

Ciaron Maher will be sending a team of 13 to the final Victorian stakes meeting of the season at Caulfield, but it is in the Benchmark 84 over 2000 metres that he is running the horse he most believes in. Aeolian (GB) (Fastnet Rock) will be sporting the silks of King Charles III in her second start down under, having debuted with a midfield effort over a mile at Sandown at the start of July.

Bred by the late Queen Elizabeth II, Aeolian is a half-sister to G3 Gordon Stakes winner and Group 1 performer Desert Hero (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}). Her dam Desert Breeze (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) is an unraced full sister to multiple Group winner Dartmouth (GB) and a half to dual Group 2 winner Manatee (GB) (Monsun {Ger}) and Listed-winning stakes producer Gaterie (GB) (Dubai Destination {USA}).

“I think she will make a big improvement in this race,” Maher told racing.com on Thursday. “She’s got no weight at all (50kg), she’ll settle closer over the 2000 and I think she’s got a super chance - one of our better chances for the day.”

In the same grade over the 1100 metres, Maher has his hopes pinned on Tennessee Bound (Written Tycoon) to stretch her unbeaten streak to six.

“She seems to raise the bar a little bit each time and she’s drawn well,” he said. “She makes her own luck and lands on speed. Jabez (Johnstone) has ridden her the last couple and the claim helps as well. I can’t see why she wouldn’t do the same again.”

If the rising 5-year-old can continue her strong form, Maher will look to setting the bar higher in future.

“She’s definitely black type, I’d think,” he said. “But how far she goes, we’ll have to see.”

In the same interview, Maher previewed where some of the stable’s top mares were in their preparations.

On Tempted (Street Boss {USA}), he said, “(she’s) in good order in here at Warwick Farm. She’s prepping up well for an Everest. Everything seems to be going along nicely at the moment.”

Pride Of Jenni (Pride Of Dubai) is due back in the stable any day, and Maher is looking forward to plotting a spring for his super mare.

“She had a super winter carnival,” he said. “It’s pretty surreal to think she’s heading into another spring carnival as a 9-year-old, but I thought her races in the winter carnival were as good as what she can do. She had little things against her, but I thought she was super.

“She probably heads to a race like the Feehan (first-up) on the way to a run at a third Empire Rose.”

Home Affairs’s last big chance to catch Snitzel

The Champion First Season Sire and the Champion Sire are still going head to head for the 2-year-old sire premiership with a week left of the season for Home Affairs to get ahead. At the close of Friday, he was just $35,000 behind Snitzel - a gap that could be changed with a win or a high quality placing from Jacaranda, his lone runner on Saturday.

A debut winner in January for Ben, Will, and JD Hayes, Jacaranda has dual accepted for the juvenile race at Caulfield and for the Listed Lightning Stakes at Morphettville for another shot at black-type.

Snitzel has two colts bidding to extend his lead on Saturday with Threads at Randwick for Ciaron Maher and Loud And Clear running at Kembla Grange for Annabel and Rob Archibald.

Threads has yet to break through, but in two starts in the autumn, he scored a third placing in the G3 Black Opal Stakes in the Godolphin blue. Loud And Clear is second up after running fourth on debut at Newcastle on July 11, and will be hoping to earn a place in the G1 Golden Rose Stakes this spring.

It’s been a standout first season for Home Affairs, who surpassed the Australian first season sire prize money record last set by Too Darn Hot (GB), with $4,942,300 in the bank. His 16 winners on Australian soil are of course headed up by G1 Golden Slipper Stakes winner Guest House, who is also nominated for the Golden Rose later in the spring, and dual Listed winner Gin Twist.

Over the Tasman, he has scored two stakes winners in New Zealand as well, with G2 Eclipse Stakes-winning Kinnaird and Listed-winning Miss Janet.

It’s been a top tier season for Snitzel too, with five stakes winners amongst his eight juvenile winners headed by the Group 1-winning pair of Fireball and Campione D’Italia. He will be anointed with his fifth Champion Sire title at the close of this season, and there are two more crops of higher and higher quality 2-year-olds still to come for him.

Begg sending two mares to snare Bletchingly

Grahame Begg will be looking to Miraval Rose (Grunt {NZ}) and Samangu (Written By) to pick up a last stakes race of the season in the G3 Bletchingly Stakes at Caulfield on Saturday. Both arrive at the race through strong last start stakes efforts; Miraval Rose was fourth behind Winnasedge by less than three quarters of a length, and Samangu was beaten just two lengths in the Listed Santa Ana Lane Stakes at the beginning of the month.

Begg’s racing manager Rohan Hughes is looking for improvement from Miraval Rose in her second-up showing, and is hoping for a drying track to bring out her best.

“She doesn't like wet ground, but she had a little procedure early in the prep where we had to back off her and that meant we had her kicking off in the winter,” Hughes said to racingandsports.com.au on Friday.

“She's a big, heavy mare, so if we tipped her out, we would never get her back, so we kept her going and we chose these two races. Ideally, she would like three weeks rather than two weeks going second-up, but she is a big, gross doing mare. She'll cop it, it's just a matter of whether she backs up, and is as sharp.

“It's a similar lot, so if she holds her form, with a little bit of improvement, she should be right in the mix.”

Hughes believes Samangu deserves her chance at black-type before the turn of the season.

“We feel like she's going very well and she's a bit similar to the other mare in that she needs drier ground, ideally,” Hughes said. “She got into a sit and sprint race in the Santa Ana Lane, whereas we feel if she can get into a race where they go a nice gallop, she will be better off.

“It's her first try at weight-for-age, but we've always had a good opinion of her and right now we feel she's going really well and we're happy to give her a chance.”