Trainer Darryl Hansen has confirmed that Magic Millions Classic winner Le Chef has been sent to the spelling paddock and will not contest the 2015 Golden Slipper or the 2015 Blue Diamond Stakes.
Le Chef will not be given the chance to join Dance Hero and Phelan Ready as the only horses to complete the Magic Millions Classic/Golden Slipper double. Photo by: Daniel Costello
Le Chef only earnt a start in the 2015 Magic Millions Classic when he took out the First National Handicap (1200m) at the Gold Coast on January 3 and he started the $2 million race at the lucrative odds of $15, but he produced a most impressive performance to run away from his rivals and recorded a comfortable win from Pepperano and Single Gaze.
Both Dance Hero (2004) and Phelan Ready (2009) were able to go on to win the Group 1 Golden Slipper (1200m) after taking out the Magic Millions Classic, but Hansen told Racing Ahead that Le Chef would not be set for the Group 1 event at Rosehill Gardens on March 21 and will instead be saved for the Group 1 J.J. Atkins (1600m) that will be held at Doomben during the 2015 Brisbane Winter Racing Carnival.
“He is very exciting for us all and we are looking forward to the future,” Hansen said.
“We have put him in the paddock and we are going to dodge the Slipper.
“We will probably bring him back for the winter in Queensland and something like the T.J. Smith (J.J. Atkins) will be our aim there and we will work it out from there.
“I always said that he would be a better three-year-old and better over 1400 and 1600 metres.”
Le Chef was purchased for $120,000 at the 2014 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale by prominent Mt Isa-based owner Lenore Saunders and she elected to place the Exceed And Excel colt with Hansen after he had success with his full brother Le Cap.
The two-year-old made his racing debut with a fifth place finish behind Wicked Intent in the Breakfast Creek Hotel Handicap (1050m) at Doomben on November 29, but he recorded his maiden win in impressive fashion in the XXXX Gold Plate (1100m) at Ipswich on December 24 before his important win in the First National Handicap.
Wicked Intent ($21) is the only horse that ran in the Magic Millions Classic who is available at 2015 Golden Slipper odds of less than $30, while Godolphin filly Ottoman ($8) remains a narrow favourite with Ladbrokes Australia from Furnaces ($9), Fontiton ($10), Headwater ($11), Paceman ($13) and Vancouver ($13).
