Jockey Hugh Bowman is hopeful that a high pressure 2015 Golden Slipper can help Furnaces turn-the-tables on Vancouver in the Group 1 event at Rosehill Gardens tomorrow.
Jockey Hugh Bowman is hopeful that Furnaces can deliver him a maiden win in the Golden Slipper at Rosehill Gardens tomorrow.
Furnaces stamped himself as a Golden Slipper contender when he won the Primo Moraitis Plate (1100m) at Rosehill Gardens on October 25 in impressive fashion, but he was beaten by Haptic in the Listed Lonhro Plate (1100m) at Royal Randwick on February 14 before he finished second behind Vancouver in the Group 2 Todman Stakes (1200m) at the same venue on March 7.
Vancouver ran away from Furnaces in the final stages of the Todman Stakes, but Bowman believes that Furnaces will receive a lovely run into the race from barrier one and feels that the Exceed And Excel colt is capable of winning the 2015 Golden Slipper Stakes.
“This is a horse that has gotten closest to the favourite Vancouver,” Bowman told Sky Racing Radio.
“It was a small field when they met last time and I think that with a more high-pressure race if I could settle this horse just a little bit off the pace he might just have the turn-of-foot to compete with the leading contender.
“It is not always high-pressure and sometimes it is not run at a frantic pace.
“I can’t see any lightning quick horses in the race, but I still expect a bit of pressure.
“From barrier one I am under no pressure to get a good position and I am going to get one regardless.”
The Golden Slipper task of Vancouver was made a great deal tougher when he was allocated barrier 18 at the barrier draw for the world’s richest two-year-old event that was conducted on Tuesday and Bowman admits that the two-year-old will have to more than live up to the hype to be any chance in the Group 1 event.
“I don’t think that I would push forward out of the barriers, but I certainly wouldn’t be negative,” Bowman said.
“He reminds me so much of Pierro and with the exclusion of Dance Hero he was the best two-year-old that I have seen and this horse didn’t catch your eye at the start, but he has just got better and better and better.
“He has three-year-old written all over him and he is obviously the class horse, but he is going to have to do it the hard way and he has to be the class horse to win.”
Furnaces is currently available at 2015 Golden Slipper odds of $15 with Ladbrokes, while Vancouver remains a clear favourite at a quote of $3.10 from Exosphere ($4) and Headwater ($12).
