Osorno, Tally ready to show best form at Rosehill

The step out to 1,400m helped the progressive two-year-old Osorno run the best race of his career at his latest start, and a return to the same trip can encourage further improvement at Rosehill on Saturday, 31 March.

In four runs, Osorno (Hugh Bowman) has been placed twice, his effort when beaten in a close photo at Newcastle earlier this month suggesting he was reaching a peak for the G3 Schweppervesence.

“He should be perfectly primed for the 1,400m,” said trainer James Cummings.

“He might have been a fraction underdone going into his last run given the big jump in distance and the wide run he had. He’s come on again since then and he’s ready to give us a better effort this time.

“He’s got a lot of style about him and he looks like the sort of horse who is right up to winning a race like this.”

While Tally is at a more advanced stage of his career, the stable is looking for him to recapture the form of his youth in the G3 Neville Sellwood Stakes.

A winner twice at G2-level as a three-year-old when he was also placed in the G1 ATC Derby at Randwick, Tally has performed capably since, although his last success was 12 months ago.

But Cummings says improvement can be expected.

“He’s much better off here than he was in a handicap last start. Even so, I thought he warmed to the task nicely and he has the 2,000m here again,” the trainer said.

“With the improvement that his program allows for, he’s not without a chance.”

In a mediocre field, the most interesting opposition to Tally may well come from One Foot In Heaven, a winner of two G2 and two G3 races in France who also ran respectably in the 2016 G1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

He is having his first Australian start since joining the Chris Waller stable.