Rain has Ryan guessing in Golden Slipper

Today’s wet track at Rosehill for the running of the Group 1 $3.5m Tooheys New Golden Slipper (1200m) has trainer Gerald Ryanguessing how his two runners, Charlie Boy and Gothraki, will handle the conditions.

charlie boy

Trainer Gerald Ryan not sure how Charlie Boy (above) will handle the rain affected track on Golden Slipper Day. Photo by Steve Hart.

Rosehill has been rated a slow 7 after receiving 33mm over the past week  with more showers predicted during the day.

Charlie Boy has had the experience of running on a heavy track when third to Sweet Idea in the Group 2 $200,000 Patinack Farm Silver Slipper Stakes (1100m) at Rosehill on March 2 whereas Dothraki hasn’t raced on anything like today’s surface but was third in Rosehill barrier trial on the heavy.

“To be honest I don’t know. Charlie Boy did run third on a heavy 10, so you’d think he’d handle the track OK, but the other one has never seen anything worse than a dead track, and that wasn’t really a dead track that day,” Ryan said.

“The only way you ever really find out is to run them on it and that’s what we’ll be doing.”

While Charlie Boy, a $26 chance, showed that he is not a complete duffer in the wet, Dothraki is by noted wet track sire Mossman and looks over the odds at $51 after running second to Sidestep in the Group 2 $175,000 Pago Pago Stakes (1200m) at Rosehill last week.

Jockey Glyn Schofield, who has ridden both of Ryan’s Golden Slipper runners at all of their starts, has chosen to stick with Charlie Boy while Corey Brown takes over on Dothraki.

The Gai Waterhouse trained Overreach has eased slightly in overnight betting, but is still the clear cut favourite at $2.80 while stablemate Sweet Idea has come in for some solid support and has shortened from $10 to $8.50.

The Peter Snowden trained Sidestep, with the blinkers on for the first time, remains on the $9 line with Villa Verde firming into $11 and Group 1 winning New Zealand filly Ruud Awakening steady at $13.

Waterhouse’s third runner Whittington is a $19 chance.

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.