Late Golden Slipper bids at Rosehill

A pair of late but worthy bids for starts in the world’s richest two-year-old race, the G1 Golden Slipper Stakes, will be made by the Godolphin youngsters Alizee and Coruscate at Rosehill on Saturday.

With the A$3.5 million race only a week away, Alizee and Coruscate will be biding to join their stablemates Veranillo and Trekking in the quest to add to Sepoy’s 2011 Slipper victory for His Highness Sheikh Mohammed.

Alizee will be having her second race start and will be partnered by the newly-arrived William Buick in the G3 Magic Night Stakes, a race she must win to secure a start in the two-year-old feature.

“Alizee had a very unfortunate first-up run so I took her back to the trials just to build some confidence,” said her trainer John O’Shea.

“She’s an extremely talented filly and if she was to get a nice run, and if she ran up to her work, she’d be extremely competitive.”

Coruscate (William Buick) runs against the males in the G3 Pago Pago Stakes, which he also needs to win to earn enough prizemoney to gain a Slipper start. He is joined in the race by Schubert (Kerrin McEvoy).

A winner on debut at Canterbury, Coruscate then finished second in the G2 Skyline Stakes after dashing to a clear lead at the 300m.

“He was on a very heavy track at Randwick at his last start and I thought he was a little bit eager coming up over the rise,” O’Shea said.

“He’s back to a firmer surface on Saturday and his work’s been exceptional for a race of this calibre.”

O’Shea will also use the Rosehill meeting to examine the future Autumn possibilities for the three-year-olds Bezel (William Buick) and Achi Baba (Tye Angland).

“Bezel had a slow start to his preparation and consequently we took him back to the trials where he acquitted himself very well,” the trainer said.

“He gets to 1500 which is a nice distance for him and his work’s been very sharp.”

O’Shea also expects Achi Baba to progress from Saturday’s race after a slight disruption to his program.

“He missed his second up run when the meeting was washed out so it may just compromise him being second up at 1500 after a three-week break,” he said.

Saturday’s Sydney stakes-race contingent is completed by Allergic (William Buick) and Magic Hurricane (Sam Clipperton), who should run well in the G3 Sky High Stakes, and the French import Floodlight (Jay Ford) and It’s Somewhat (William Buick) in the G2 Ajax Stakes.

Of that quartet, Magic Hurricane stands out as a strong prospect on the strength of his effort when fourth to champion mare Winx in the G1 Chipping Norton Stakes at Randwick two weeks ago.

“He was exceptional at Group One level last start, he loves to get his toe in the ground and third up at 10 furlongs is ideal for him,” O’Shea said.

Floodlight makes his Australian debut in the Ajax while It’s Somewhat is having the first run of a campaign intended to take him to the G1 Doomben Cup in Brisbane in mid-year.