The Tancred Stakes meeting will be held at Rosehill Gardens this Saturday (30th Mar). The course proper was rated a Good 4 on Thursday and with mainly fine weather in Sydney leading up to the weekend, Rosehill will be racing on a Good track on raceday.
High class colt Linebacker is ready to step up to 1400 in the Baillieu Stakes (Sydney Race 3, 1400m). John O’Shea has been very patient as the 2YO’s only appearance was a four-length maiden win at Hawkesbury in February. Finishing 2nd behind him was Bosustow, who franked the form with his subsequent 3rd placing behind Traffic Warden in the VRC Sires’ Produce Stakes at Flemington. With five weeks between runs, O’Shea has kept Linebacker up to the mark with a 900m barrier trial win on 18th March. Tommy Berry is going to take full advantage of the inside gate and go straight to the lead and Linebacker is the one they all have to catch.
The Godolphin-owned Tom Kitten is ready to peak in the Tancred Stakes (Sydney Race 8, 2400m).The 3YO colt had won the Group 1 Spring Champion Stakes over 2000m and while he did finish off well in the Eskimo Prince and the Hobartville Stakes earlier this campaign, he really showed his true colour finishing close up in the Randwick Guineas and the Rosehill Guineas. Backing up from last week, Tom Kitten is rock hard fit and is ready to run out a strong 2400m. Jamie Kah will sit just behind the leading bunch with a cosy run and Tom Kitten will be motoring home late.
The in-form Bjorn Baker stable has Amor Victorious as a strong light weight chance in the Racing & Sports Doncaster Prelude (Sydney race 9, 1500m). The 4YO gelding started off this campaign in great fashion with two Randwick wins before a last start 7th against strong opposition in the Group 2 Ajax Stakes. He has pretty good record at Rosehill as well as at 1500m and he has only been allotted the limit weight of 53kg. Rachel King will drive to the front to control the pace and together with his light weight, Amor Victorious could prove hard to catch.
By Owens Wong