Black Caviar's half-brother All Too Hard will be vying to become the first horse in seven years to win the Group 2 $175,000 Bowermans Office Furniture Pago Pago Stakes and $3.5m AAMI Golden Slipper double when he has his first Sydney start at Rosehill Gardens this Saturday.
The Michael, Wayne and John Hawkes-trained colt ($1.40 with TAB Sportsbet) will be launching from barrier eight in a field of 10 in the Slipper prelude for colts and geldings over 1200m.
The impressive winner of the Group 2 VRC Sire's Produce Stakes over 1400m firmed to equal second favourite in the Slipper today at $6.50 with Pierro.
Samaready is favourite at $2.50. The Pago Pago/Slipper double was last completed in 2005 by Stratum. His son, Chris Waller's Smart Man ($71), is also in the field on Saturday.
Fourteen hopefuls will be striving to break a 25-year drought since a filly won the Group 2 $175,000 Mondial Pink Diamond Magic Night Stakes over 1200m and the $3.5m AAMI Golden Slipper.
Leading contenders Agueda (14), Valerio (10) and Kyria (11) have all drawn wide barriers while Queensland's Doubtfilly (1) and Allan Denham's Ichihara (4) fared much better. The Magic Night/Slipper double was last won by Bounding Away in 1986.
Last start New Zealand Derby winner Silent Achiever ($4.20) is the early favourite for the Group 1 $500,000 Flinders Lane Rosehill Guineas over 2000m with Kiwi horses vying for four straight wins in the race.
Drawn out wide in barrier 17 she will be in good company with Randwick Guineas (1600m) runner up Said Com ($10) barrier 20, Doctor Doom ($41) in 16 and fellow New Zealander Ocean Park ($8.50) in 11. Gai Waterhouse's Laser Hawk ($4.80) will jump from barrier 9 for the feature race of the second Saturday of the BMW Sydney Carnival.
Joe Pride's popular sprinter Rain Affair ($1.70) looks set to atone after a recent poor showing at Flemington when he takes on Melbourne's Bel Sprinter ($3.30) in the Group 2 $175,000 Parramatta Leagues Club Challenge Stakes over 1100m.
There will be a challenging start to the Super Sevens promotion - where race goers at Rosehill Gardens can win $200,000 for picking the winners of Races 3-9 – in an extremely even $100,000 Randwick Equine Centre Darby Munro Stakes over 1200m which is the first leg of the promotion.
In the De Bortoli Wines George Moore Golden Whip Award, the title of the best jockey over the BMW Sydney Carnival, Nash Rawiller is on 7 points and is currently $3.60 with TAB Sportsbet, followed by Corey Brown also on 7 points ($4.20) and Hugh Bowman on 5 points ($4.60).
The Rosehill Gardens track was rated a Dead 4 today. “There have been isolated showers about but so far we have missed them at Rosehill and if that continues I expect the track to continue to improve,” said ATC GM Racecourses Lindsay Murphy.
