O’Shea’s 4 to take on heavy track in the Run To The Rose

Trainer John O’Shea said that all four of his runners in the Group 2 $175,000 MTA Run To The Rose (1200m) at Rosehill on Saturday will go around despite the prospect of another heavy track.

Astern, royal blue colours, will run first up on a heavy track in the Run To The Rose at Rosehill. Photo by Ultimate Racing Photos.

Astern, royal blue colours, will run first up on a heavy track in the Run To The Rose at Rosehill. Photo by Ultimate Racing Photos.

The Rosehill track was downgraded to a heavy 9 on Thursday morning after receiving another 58mm of rain in the previous twenty-four hours, taking the total week’s rainfall to 66mm and with more showers forecast for the remainder of the week, the conditions are not going to improve significantly.

O’Shea has four three year olds engaged to wear the Godolphin royal blue colours in the Run To The Rose and said that all four, Astern, Impending, Tessera and Telperion, need to get their Spring Carnival campaign underway.

“We need to get started unfortunately. If we don’t run now we are going to go into the Golden Rose first up, it’s not ideal,” O’Shea told racing.com.

Astern, Telperion and Impending are eligible to run in the Group 1 $1m Golden Rose Stakes (1400m) at Rosehill next week and O’Shea said that they will need to run well this weekend to have a chance of running in the first Group 1 of the Sydney Spring Carnival.

O’Shea said that he hopes all four runners in the Run To The Rose are fit enough to handle the heavy conditions first up.

“It is going to be each horses capacity to handle the ground and whether their fitness levels are sufficiently well enough to be effective,” O’Shea said.

“We are happy with all of the horses and I am sure they will run well.”

Tessera is one that will certainly handle the wet conditions, having won on a soft and a heavy surface while Astern is also a winner on a soft 6 when he dead heated with the Gai Waterhouse trained El Divino in the Group 3 $200,000 Widden Kindergarten Stakes (1100m) at Randwick on April 2.

Telperion has been placed on the soft while Impending is yet to be tested on a rain affected track.

Number one stable rider James McDonald had the pick of the rides and has given the stable followers a good tip by electing to stick the classy Astern who is a winner of three of his four starts.

“They look to be going well. James has chosen Astern which is probably a leg up,” O’Shea said.

Astern has drawn nicely at barrier three in the twelve horse Run To The Rose field while Tessera with Kathy O’Hara in the saddle had drawn next to him at gate four.

Impending has drawn midfield at six with Brenton Avdulla while Telperion has drawn one from the outside at eleven with Jason Collett booked to ride.

Early market order for The Run To The Rose at Ladbrokes.com.au: $3.80 Star Turn, $4.40 Impending, $5 Mediterranean, $6.50 El Divino, $7 Astern, $13 Telperion, $15 Good Standing, $51 Tessera, Manolo Blahniq, Nikitas, $61 Cellarman, $201 Gadfly.

About The Author

Mark Mazzaglia

Mark is a passionate journalist with a life-time involvement in the racing industry. He spent many years as an analyst and form expert at the Courier Mail and also has hands-on experience working with some of Queensland’s top trainers.