The San Domenico Stakes meeting will be held at Rosehill Gardens this Saturday (26th Aug). The course proper was rated a Soft 5 on Thursday and with overcast weather in Sydney leading up to the weekend, Rosehill will border on Good/Soft condition on raceday.
After combining to take out last week’s Highway Handicap with Derry Grove, Matthew Dunn and Nash Rawiller are going to win back to back Highways and this time with Take The Kitty at Rosehill (Sydney Race 1, 1400m). The 4YO has a good campaign with two wins and a 3rd in his first three starts since his spell before drawing wide and left too much to do last start. Drawing the rail on Saturday especially with blinkers back on, we can expect the gelding to settle closer in transit. He’s rock hard fit being 5th up and is ready to step up to 1400m. Nash will settle somewhere mid-field and Take The Kitty will let down strongly in the straight.
Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott have Les Vampires primed to take out the Up And Coming Stakes (Sydney Race 7, 1300m). The Pierro colt is a nice progressive type. Though he’s a bit wayward on debut, he had improved a lot in his second start when he won brilliantly at Warwick Farm. The 3YO is bound to improve further and he has only been allotted with the limit weight of 53kg. Stepping up to 1300m will also suit. Tim Clark is a great front running rider and from barrier 6, he’ll go straight to the front and Les Vampires is the one they all have to catch.
Top weight Corniche has two fine trials in preparation for a winning return in Saturday’s San Domenico Stakes (Sydney Race 8, 1100m). The Godolphin-owned colt had been mixing with top 2YOs in the autumn having beaten eventually Golden Slipper winner Shinzo in the Skyline Stakes. Starting off the campaign in a 1100m race should be perfect. Nicely drawn in barrier 6, Nash Rawiller will go forward and sit just behind the leaders and Corniche should prove too good in the run home.
By Owens Wong
