Melbourne jockey Craig Williams will stick with smart two year old Weatherly in the Group 2 $300,000 UNSW Todman Stakes (1200m) at Randwick on Saturday.
Craig Williams will partner Weatherly, above, again in the Todman Stakes at Randwick. Photo by Ultimate Racing Photos.
Williams is happy to miss the rich Australian Guineas day at Flemington on Saturday and follow the Paul Messara trained Weatherly on his path towards the Group 1 $3.5m Longines Golden Slipper (1200m) at Rosehill on March 19.
Williams has been aboard Weatherly for both his race starts and didn‘t give up on the colt when he finished sixth in the Listed $150,000 Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Preview (C&G) (1000m) at Caulfield on January 26 after bungling the starts.
The Beneteau colt was again a bit tardy at the jump but overcome the early setback to score an impressive win in the Listed $120,000 Talindert Stakes (1100m) down the Flemington straight on February 20.
Messara decided to bypass the Group 1 $1.5m Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield last Saturday and return to Sydney to concentrate on securing a start in the Golden Slipper.
Williams has been very impressed with Weatherly and is willing to give him a solid test in the Todman Stakes heading towards the Golden Slipper.
“Wherever he goes at this stage I’ll follow him,” Williams told AAP.
“The Todman’s going to be a cracking race and it looks like it will be the Golden Slipper preview.
“We’ll find out where they all sit after that.”
With only six youngsters nominated for the Todman Stakes, the Australian Turf Club has extended the entry deadline until 11am on Tuesday March 1, 2016.
The Peter and Paul Snowden trained Capitalist is among the Todman Stakes entries and will be having his first start since winning the $2m Magic Millions 2yo Classic (1200m) at the Gold Coast on January 9.
Capitalist was installed the favourite for the Golden Slipper after his Magic Millions win, but was relegated to the second line of betting at $4.50 after Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes winner Extreme Choice took over the top spot at $4 after Saturday’s win at Caulfield.
Also nominated for the Todman Stakes is the John O’Shea trained pair Astern and Tessera.
Both Medaglia D’Oro colts are last start winners with Tessera winning the Group 3 $150,000 Canonbury Stakes (1100m) at Rosehill on January 30 while Astern led all of the way to win the Group 2 $250,000 UVEX Silver Slipper Stakes (1100m) at Rosehill on February 20.
Gai Waterhouse has entered Kiss And Make Up who scored on debut in a mid week Canterbury Maiden over 1200m on February 17 and Jason McLachlan has nominated his unbeaten Written Tycoon colt Dieters.
The Sunshine Coast trained Dieters is unbeaten from two race starts with wins at Doomben over 1050m and over 1110m in two year old company.
