Two year old Charlie Boy will tell trainer Gerald Ryan if he is a genuine Golden Slipper contender when he steps out in the Group 2 $200,000 Patinack Farm Silver Slipper Stakes (1100m) at Rosehill tomorrow.
Charlie Boy winning on debut at Rosehill. Photo by Steve Hart.
Ryan sent Charlie Boy to the paddock after the Myboycharlie colt won impressively on debut at Rosehill in November with the Group 1 $3.5m Tooheys New Golden Slipper (1200m) at Rosehill on April 6 in mind.
Charlie Boy was an easy Rosehill barrier trial winner almost two weeks ago and recent track work has encouraged Ryan to think he has a quality two year old.
“He’s a nice horse with plenty of ability but where he sits we won’t know until we race him,” Ryan said.
“It’s a very good race, probably the best two year race we’ve had this season. It’s getting to the business end of it now.”
“He’s come back very well, he’ll improve off the trial and he will improve with the race as well.”
Charlie Boy’s best of the morning gallop on Tuesday at Rosehill indicated that he was ready to produce a solid first up run tomorrow.
With the solid trial under his belt, Charlie Boy worked with stablemate Ivanhoe out 10m on the inside grass, clocking the fastest time of the session, 36.49s for the 600m, coming home the final 200m in 12.02s on a dead surface.
Ryan is not worried about sending Charlie Boy around on a wet track after Rosehill was rated a heavy 9 following 107 mm of rain over the last seven days.
“He won a jump out here a few weeks ago against older horses on a heavy track, he beat then by eight lengths so he must go through it well,” Ryan said.
Anthony Cummings is also expecting his two year old Never Can Tell to emerge as a top Golden Slipper chance as well after the Silver Slipper is contested.
Never Can Tell is undefeated from two starts and returned from a summer break to take out the Listed $100,000 Canonbury Stakes (1100m) at Rosehill on February 16.
Even though Never Can Tell was impressive, his victory was overshadowed by the win of the Gai Waterhouse trained Overreach who beat the fillies by almost six lengths in the Listed $100,000 Widden Stakes (1100m) on the same day and elevated to the top of the Golden Slipper betting at $4.80.
”He was in an unusual situation the other day where he was bagged for winning because the race wasn’t run at the same tempo as the fillies race,” Cummings said.
“At the end of the day the horse will do the talking and he will either be good enough or not.”
“I think he is and Saturday will be another chance to prove it.”
Charlie Boy heads the market for the Silver Slipper at $3.90 with Never Can Tell sharing the second line of betting with the Peter Snowden trained Kuroshio at $5.50 and Gai Waterhouse’s Sweet Idea is the next in line at $8.
