Golden Slipper hopeful Good Standing records race winning gallop

Longtime Randwick clocker Nic Ashman ventured to Rosehill last Saturday to watch Good Standing reel off a race winning gallop in the build up to Saturday’s Group 1 $3.5m Longines Golden Slipper (1200m) at Rosehill.

Good Standing will be trainer James Cummings' first runner in the Golden Slipper at Rosehill. Photo by Steve Hart.

Good Standing will be trainer James Cummings’ first runner in the Golden Slipper at Rosehill. Photo by Steve Hart.

Ashman, who has clocked some of the all-time champions trained at Randwick, rated Good Standing’s last 600m of his workout as the best gallop from a two year old he has witnessed, including last year’s Golden Slipper winner Vancouver.

Good Standing galloped between races at Rosehill and recorded a sub 35 second last 600m and 11 second final 200m.

“I have clocked some top line two-year-olds including Vancouver during my time as a Randwick clocker,” Ashman told News Limited.

“But I’ve never seen a two-year-old work better than Good Standing did on Saturday.”

Good Standing qualified for the Golden Slipper with a win in the Group 2 $175,000 Pro-Ride Skyline Stakes (1200m) at Randwick on February 27 and winning jockey Hugh Bowman elected to stay with the Artie Schiller colt this weekend.

Cummings decided to give Good Standing a trip to Rosehill from his Randwick base last Saturday to give him more race day experience and was glad he did.

“It’s a big day on Saturday and it can get to a two-year-old,” Cummings said.

“There’ll be a lot of people around, the noise is like nothing else they’ve experienced on a raceday so like everyone else I will be hoping he copes with that.

“That’s why I’m glad I took him there last Saturday. He got an opportunity to experience the atmosphere attached to a big carnival day.

“He got a lot more out of his gallop at Rosehill last Saturday than he would have trudging around here (Randwick) on Saturday morning or on Tuesday in the gloomy wet conditions.”

As well as learning to cope with the large race day crowd, Cummings was very pleased with the way the colt pulled up after his excellent hit out.

“He had that right amount of freshness and spark about him to know it did him good,” Cummings said.

“He powered up the Rosehill straight, has pulled up remarkably well and hasn’t disappointed me since.

“There’s so much upside to this horse.

“This race is probably the biggest day of this horse’s life because he’s a colt and it’s the Golden Slipper and the way the things are falling into place, the way the races have unfolded in recent weeks, it’s just gained a real appeal.”

Good Standing will be Cummings first Golden Slipper runner and is currently marked at $13 at Ladbokes.com.au.

Blue Diamond  Stakes winner Extreme Choice heads the market order at $3 ahead of his Mick Price trained stablemate Flying Artie at $5 with Capitalist on the third line of betting at $9.

Golden Slipper market order: $3 Extreme Choice, $5 Flying Artie, $9 Capitalist, $10 Kiss And Make Up, Astern, $13 Good Standing, $17 Calliope, $21 Defcon, $26 Scarlet Rain, Telperion, $31 Yankee Rose, $41 Star Turn, Honesty Prevails, $101 Sweet Sherry, $126 Moqueen, $151 Quick Feet, French Fern.

About The Author

Mark Mazzaglia

Mark is a passionate journalist with a life-time involvement in the racing industry. He spent many years as an analyst and form expert at the Courier Mail and also has hands-on experience working with some of Queensland’s top trainers.