Up And Coming Shards & Inner Circle

Time/Date - 12.35hrs local time/Saturday, August 22, 2015
Racecourse/Country - Royal Randwick/Australia
Surface/Distance - Turf/6f 110y

Three-year-old colts Shards and Inner Circle try for a first Pattern success in the Group Three Up And Coming Stakes over six and a half furlongs at Royal Randwick, Australia, on Saturday, August 22.

Shards (John O'Shea/James McDonald) ended his juvenile campaign with two handicap appearances over just short of seven furlongs at Rosehill Gardens, including a comfortable victory on June 13.

The son of Medaglia d'Oro went down by half a length when second on May 30 and came home third on his debut in an extended six-furlong Canterbury maiden on May 13.

Inner Circle (John O'Shea/Tim Clark) was third of five on his latest start in a heavy-ground Canterbury handicap over six furlongs on July 25, having finished eighth in the seven-furlong Group Three The Schweppervescence Quality at Rosehill Gardens on March 28.

The Street Cry colt ran a better race at Rosehill Gardens to take a close fourth in the six-furlong Group Two Pago Pago Stakes on March 14 and made a winning debut at the same course on February 25 with a decisive success in a maiden over five and a half furlongs.

John O'Shea commented: "Shards has had one nice trial but he has lovely residual fitness.

"Despite this being over 1,300 metres first-up, he is a quality horse and should roll forward from gate one and I think he will control the race. In a slowly run race, he should be able to dictate terms here and I think he will give an awfully good sight.

"He still has good improvement on whatever he does here, but I will be very surprised if he doesn't fight out the finish.

"Inner Circle looked a little disappointing first-up but he gets back to a good surface here.

"He has had a good preparation leading into this race and the addition of blinkers, which seemed to have really sharpened him up.

"The last 100 metres will be a telling factor for him if he is going to be a genuine 1,400 metres/miler then he will have to run it out as he does have sufficient foundation to be competitive here.

"His work has been indicative that he has really made the transition to a nice class colt and if he is not to win here, he definitely has a good race in him at some stage during the spring."

Shards and Inner Circle oppose six other three-year-olds including Group Two fifth Sebring Sun, debut winner Cannyescent and Silver Slipper runner-up Voilier.