Undefeated colt Vancouver remains the favourite for the Group 1 $3.5m Tooheys New Golden Slipper Stakes (1200m) at Rosehill on Saturday even though he came up with a horror gate at Tuesday’s barrier draw.
Vancouver remains the favourite for the Golden Slipper at Rosehill despite drawing a wide barrier.Photo by Steve Hart.
Vancouver drew eighteen of nineteen, sixteen plus three emergencies in the final field, and after opening at $2.50 when the final field was released, the Gai Waterhouse trained colt drifted to $3 with Ladbrokes.com.au but is still at the top of the market order.
Second favourite Exosphere drew reasonable at ten and has been well supported, firming in from $4.60 to $4, with Headwater, barrier eleven, coming in a point from $12 to $11.
Waterhouse is not worried about her colt drawing out in the car park and is still super confident that the Medaglia D’Oro colt will win her sixth Golden Slipper trophy following her wins with Ha Ha (2001), Dance Hero (2004), Sebring (2008), Pierro (2012) and Overreach (2013).
“He’ll win,” Waterhouse declared.
“And the most important thing is he will be better odds.”
“I never worry about barriers because you can’t do anything about them.”
“It is like your parents, you can’t say that you want to change your parents because you are stuck with them.
“We have an outside barrier and there will be a scrimmage going on inside.
“He can go forward and he can go back.
“Tommy (Berry) has won a Golden Slipper and he was bang up on the fence and he will be using his brains from the outside there.”
Vancouver goes into the Golden Slipper with three wins from three starts and definitely looked the one to beat after demoralising the field in the Group 2 $300,000 UNSW Todman Stakes (1200m) at Randwick on March 7 with a three and a quarter lengths thrashing with Tommy Berry aboard.
The big bay colt also looked good in winning on debut in the Listed $100,000 NSW Thoroughbred Breeders’ Plate (1000m) at Randwick in October and resumed from a spell to win the Group 3 $150,000 Canonbury Stakes (1100m) at Rosehill on January 31.
The John O’Shea trained Exosphere was also impressive in scoring a four lengths win in the Group 2 $175,000 Pro-Ride Skyline Stakes (1200m) at Warwick Farm on February 28 and looked as though there was further improvement to come.
Waterhouse will also saddle up English ($17) and Speak Fondly ($26) while O’Shea will have four runners in the richest two year old race in the world, Exosphere, Furnaces ($14), Haptic ($15) and Ottoman ($34).
Latest Golden Slipper market order at Ladbrokes.com.au: $3 Vancouver, $4 Exosphere, $11 Headwater, $13 Ready For Victory, $14 Furnaces $15 Haptic, $17 English, Lake Geneva, $26 Speak Fondly, $34 Fireworks, Ottoman, Reemah, $51 Single Gaze, Haybah, $67 Odyssey Moon $101 Serenade, Look To The Stars, $151 Racy, $201 Heavenly Hand.
