Foxwedge Could Be O’Shea’s Golden Boy In The Rose

Foxwedge

According to trainer John O'Shea Foxwedge will improve dramatically after scoring second place in The Run To The Rose

Despite Smart Missile’s impressive run to win the Run To The Rose at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday, Foxwedge’s trainer John O’Shea is still confident his horse has more to give come Golden Rose day.

Foxwedge finished second to Smart Missile in Saturday’s race, which saw the latter storm up the outside to produce a dominant victory over the quality field.

O’Shea feels that Foxwedge didn’t have the fitness to be competitive in last weekend’s Run To The Rose.

“I tried to make this comment during the week,” O’Shea said.

“Everyone kept saying going into the race (Run To The Rose) that Foxwedge had the fitness edge but I don’t agree with that.

“My bloke sat in a box for seven days last week (after the San Domenico) while it was raining, the favourite was galloping on the course proper on the Sunday.”

The speedy three-year-old will now go into the $1 million Golden Rose with two runs under his belt.

“I’ll tell you he’ll improve dramatically off the run,” O’Shea said.

“I love going into Group Ones third-up.”

“We wouldn’t swap our bloke, congratulations to the winner (Smart Missile), they’ve got a talented racehorse and they deserve all the accolades they are going to get.

“But don’t worry, we’re happy with our fellow and we’re going to go into the race (Golden Rose) thinking we can win.

“We’ll go on to a fortnight and my bloke will be third-up, coming to a peak and we’re really happy to be putting a saddle on his back.”

Despite O’Shea’s confidence in Foxwedge’s ability, Smart Missile’s jockey Glen Boss was inspired by his horse’s Run To The Rose performance.

“When he got sight of the bunny it was almost arrogant the way he came up to the other horse,” said Boss.

“Gee he is an exciting horse, I just don’t know what he ran his last split in – it was Usain Bolt.”

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