Trainer Tony McEvoy believes that Risen From Doubt is close to his peak fitness and is confident that the talented colt can score his second race win in the 2014 Todman Stakes (1200m) at Rosehill Gardens this weekend.
Risen From Doubt will have his final race start before the Golden Slipper in the Todman Stakes at Rosehill Gardens this weekend. Photo by: Race Horse Photos Australia
Risen From Doubt stamped himself as a Golden Slipper contender with a dominant win in the Listed Maribyrnong Trial Stakes (1000m) at Flemington during the 2013 Spring Racing Carnival and started his autumn preparation with a third place finish behind Mossfun in the Group 2 Silver Slipper Stakes (1100m) at Rosehill Gardens on March 1.
McEvoy told Racing Ahead this morning that Risen From Doubt had come out of his first-up run well and has worked strongly in the lead-up to the 2014 Todman Stakes on Saturday.
“He has really bounced through it,” McEvoy said.
“Considering he went into the race not fully wound-up and then we got the wet track, he really bounced out of it beautifully and has missed a beat.
“I don’t test him too much, I know that he is good, and I’m not in the business of testing them all the time, but he has had a couple of solid pieces of work since that race to bring his fitness up.
“He had a gallop on Tuesday morning and he had a strong gallop and pulled up very nicely and clean in the lungs.
“He is really getting much closer to his top.”
McEvoy is taking no chances with Risen From Doubt heading towards the Group 1 Golden Slipper (1200m) at Rosehill Gardens on April 5 and has elected to apply a tongue tie to the son of Not A Single Doubt for the first time.
“It has been worrying me for a little bit; he has started to get this little bit of a habit of playing with his tongue,” McEvoy said.
“He is really well in himself, but I noticed twice that he had his tongue over the bit and I can’t afford that to happen.
“You don’t get many chances coming into these big races, so we started working him in a tongue tie and he accepted it beautifully.”
The Todman Stakes has drawn a strong field of talented juveniles and McEvoy believes that he will get plenty of insight into where Risen From Doubt ranks in the two-year-old division after he runs on Saturday.
Risen From Doubt has previously finished ahead of Todman Stakes rivals Unencumbered and Jabali and McEvoy is confident that his star juvenile can repeat that result at Rosehill Gardens.
“I am really pleased with the way that the horse has done and it looks like we are going to get a nice track, so that will be much better for him,” McEvoy said.
“I am looking forward to seeing where he sits with Jabali and I’m hoping that he can do the same to Jabali as he did during the spring.”
Unencumbered ($3.60) is currently a narrow favourite in 2014 Todman Stakes betting markets; with Risen From Doubt ($3.90) on the second line of betting along with Jabali ($3.90).
