Veranillo worked his way into 2017 Golden Slipper calculations with a strong victory in the 2017 Lonhro Hinchinbrook Plate at Royal Randwick this afternoon.

Veranillo proved too good for his rivals in the Lonhro Hinchinbrook Plate at Royal Randwick this afternoon. Photo by: Steve Hart

James Doyle elected to settle Veranillo just behind the speed in the early stages of the race and he received a lovely trail into the contest as Tommy Berry took up the running on Eden Roc.

Veranillo was slow to respond when asked for an extra effort by Doyle and Cuba went past him at the 250 metre mark, but Veranillo fought back in the concluding stages of the race to record when ended up being a comfortable win.

Trainer John O’Shea was pleased to see Veranillo make it two wins from as many race starts with his Lonhro Plate victory and he said that the 2017 Golden Slipper was now the obvious target for the son of Medaglia D’Oro.

“He is an unassuming little fellow with plenty of improvement,” O’Shea said.

“Ultimately when he gets a little bit of headgear he will be better, but we are just going through the process.

“He is learning his trade as he is winning, which is really nice, and he is a good tough conveyance.

“That will probably get him in (to the Golden Slipper) in terms of prizemoney and we can now just smoke our pipe and give him a run somewhere.

“At some stage we will put the blinkers on in the lead-up to the Golden Slipper and see if that can find us a little bit more.

“At the moment we will give some consideration when we get him home as to where we end up with him.

“He has always been a really nice horse and despite the fact that he is a lazy worker at home he will produce on race day.

“We are happy with him.”

Doyle admitted after the race that he thought Veranillo may be outsprinted in the final stages of the Lonhro Hinchinbrook Plate, but he was happy with the way that the Golden Slipper contender was able to fight back in the final stages.

“I was very pleased with that.

“Obviously I have ridden him a little bit at home and trialed him.

“He can be quiet lazy and he gets behind the bridle, but the moment that you get stuck into him he responds and he was exactly the same again today.

“The leader went out quiet quick and we were a couple of lengths behind him, but I kept him up to his work as I didn’t want to get too relaxed on him.

“They surrounded him and looked like they were going to do him for a turn-of-foot, but he dug deep and picked up.

“It was a very professional performance.”