From Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott
Horse: Hawaii Five Oh
Message: (Saturday, Rosehill Race 8, Golden Eagle) Hawaii Five Oh has mixed it with the nation’s best sprinters this spring including his unlucky 6th in Think About It’s The Everest but now he is racing over 1500m this is his chance to shine. He’s a class horse getting into the right sweet spot. He’s had a good grounding, three solid runs in some of the best class sprint races we’ve seen. In the short term we’ve seen the Everest form stack up well, most importantly we’re seeing him under probably the most suitable conditions we’ve seen all prep. I think the 1500m of the Golden Eagle will suit this horse. The Everest showed he is looking for this distance now. We tried to keep him as sharp as we could for that race but I feel this distance is where he is going to be most effective. The draw (gate 4) has changed the complexion of the race completely for Hawaii Five Oh. He didn’t get much luck from the wide draw in The Everest but he should get his chance from barrier four in the Golden Eagle.
From Aiden St Vincent
Horse: Lisztomania
Message: (Saturday, Rosehill Race 1, Highway Hcp) Lisztomania was scratched at the barrier when hot favourite for the northern leg of the Newhaven Park Country Championships in February at Grafton, was set to resume at Randwick last Saturday but was withdrawn from an extreme outside draw. This gelding has had ongoing hoof problems, hereditary from the dam’s side, it’s constant management and patience. He’s finally where we want him getting back to the races. We certainly weren’t going to run him first-up last week from barrier 18 after all the time it’s taken to get him right. So we planned for this one. Lisztomania races in bar plates and a synthetic hoof filler. Special heart-shaped plates have allowed us to keep on top of issues but aside he’s also run into some pretty smart ones. Dylan (Gibbons)’ ridden him before, the key is keeping him in his comfort zone from the draw (gate 4) and not exposed too early. That happened when Bianco Vilano got him late. You can’t dig him up or he races too aggressively. But city Highway form, Dylan would be more than likely to tell us than us tell him.
From James Cummings
Horse: Cascadian
Message: (Saturday, Rosehill Race 7, Giga Kick Stakes) He’s first-up against these horses, who’ve had very solid and impressive sprinting campaigns coming through all the right races. Feet on the ground about his prospects of beating them home here, but we’d love to see Cascadian flash up and run a race. It might be the case that he has only the one run in the spring and then we put him away for the autumn. We like the way he’s built up for this race.
Horse: Zapateo
Message: (Saturday, Rosehill Race 7, Giga Kick Stakes) She looks like getting a gun run here and there’s a bit of rain forecast for Rosehill, which should suit Zapateo down to the ground. She will relish getting a nice, cushy run here with not so much pace predicted in this race. Surely there should be some pressure at the right time and she should enjoy an economical run and be ready to produce a good turn of foot at the finish.
Horse: Pericles
Message: (Saturday, Rosehill Race 8, Golden Eagle) Pericles, to be partnered by Ben Melham, has had his ups and downs this spring as he looked likely to start Epsom favourite on the back of two strong wins to start the campaign but was forced to miss that race. I thought his run (Silver Eagle) was excellent up on top of the speed, still fighting on at the finish. Obviously not his best run for the prep, but I did admire the way the horse went about things in the Tramway (Stakes). He showed he still had the versatility to do it from the front. From that barrier (gate 1), he can get run-of-the-race stuff and be produced at the right time. There’s a bit of confidence about the way Pericles is going.
Horse: Golden Mile
Message: (Saturday, Rosehill Race 8, Golden Eagle) It’s amazing that there might not be too much pace in a race with 20 runners. The horse is a sharp miler who can begin well and put himself in a position. He did settle six lengths off the lead in a Caulfield Guineas, so Zac Lloyd is going to have to make his mind up from the draw (gate 18). I can see him being not too far away, but it will entirely depend on how he begins. With the weight he carried in the Epsom, I thought his run was very solid. A career PB and he did it from in front, which was completely foreign to him at the time. He just got involved in a speed battle in the King Charles (III Stakes), which was not ideal. I think he could have finished closer had that not unfolded. If we go back three ago to his run in the Theo Marks, it was the Golden Mile we’ve been expecting all preparation. He gets back to Rosehill for the first time since that race, so there’s something to be said for this horse being ready to run another peak performance in the Golden Eagle this weekend.
From Joseph Pride
Horse: Private Eye
Message: (Saturday, Rosehill Race 7, Giga Kick Stakes) I think this horse (Private Eye) can run up to a level that can potentially trouble Think About It, but can he actually get past him? I’m not sure. It would probably depend how the race was run. He hasn’t drawn soft yet this preparation Private Eye, he’s had to work in both runs. If he gets a soft run, his turn of foot will be even more devastating and that could trouble Think About It late.
Horse: Coal Crusher
Message: (Saturday, Rosehill Race 7, Giga Kick Stakes) He has been set for The Hunter, but there’s no other lead-up for him. I don’t really want to run him against these other horses of mine, but he is going to have to go there.
From Edward Cummings
Horse: Strait Acer
Message: (Saturday, Rosehill Race 8, Golden Eagle) We always knew he had a lot of potential. Any horse that works the way he does at home always has that potential so it was a matter of finding a way. It was about mapping out a program, putting him in the right races. We actually started him much earlier than we normally would. Because we thought he was ready but we knew we had a task ahead of us to get his rating up sufficiently even to make a race like the Silver Eagle. I would say we were very confident every time we stepped him out, we knew there was more in store. Off a really big peak in the Silver Eagle he comes into this race requiring another one but with a profile to say that he could. Ideally he’d land midfield, like many of the previous winners, with Tyler Schiller navigating a path into clear air at the top of the straight without having asked the question. And then let him sprint for 400m which we know he is capable of and the Silver Eagle proved that. He’s got the turn of foot required for races of this calibre.
From Chris Waller
Horse: Shibli
Message: (Saturday, Rosehill Race 9, Rosehill Gold Cup) The gelding started his latest campaign and after a first-up 4th at Doomben, Shibli has strung together a hat-trick of wins to earn a return to his home track for Saturday’s Rosehill Gold Cup. He is ultra-consistent. He’s a tough old gelding and he deserves his chance to come and race down here for enormous prizemoney. He has gone from strength to strength. Every time he goes up in the handicap mark, he goes out and wins again. He has been really progressive.
Horse: Political Debate
Message: (Saturday, Rosehill Race 9, Rosehill Gold Cup) Political Debate is coming off a 2nd to exciting import Unspoken over 1600m at Randwick last month. He is still relatively lowly rated considering he ran 2nd in a J J Atkins. He has been really looking for the 2000. He’s got the form, he’s got the pedigree, he’s got the looks. He’s just got to go out and do it now.
From The Editor
Sydney Race 7 – Private Eye
Sydney Race 8 – Kovalica
Sydney Race 9 – Canberra Legend
