Golden girl Winx has drawn the outside barrier in the eight horse field for the Group 2 $250,000 Chelmsford Stakes (1600m) at Randwick on Saturday.
Winx, above, has drawn the outside of the 8 horse field in the Chelmsford Stakes at Randwick. Photo by Steve Hart.
Sydney’s leading trainer Chris Waller will supply six of the eight runners and as well as Winx will saddle up Preferment, Who Shot Thebarman, Grand Marshall, Storm The Stars and Spiritjim.
The other two runners are the John O’Shea trained The BMW winner Hartnell and James Cummings’ Champagne Stakes winner Prized Icon.
Top Sydney jockey Hugh Bowman will again be on top of Winx who is chasing her eleventh straight win in Saturday’s weight for age race over the Randwick Mile.
The Randwick track was rated a Soft 6 on Wednesday and with more rain forecast to arrive in the Sydney area in the lead up to the weekend Waller said there could be slight possibility that Winx might not take place in the field if the track is too heavy.
But Waller would not be overly concerned if the Street Cry mare was forced to miss a run because her fitness were already fairly high with one run under belt following her first up win in the Group 2 $250,000 Warwick Stakes (1400m) at Randwick on August 20.
“There’s all sorts of options, she’s had the first-up run and she’s not soft,” Waller told The Daily Telegraph.
“I’ve planned a preparation to miss a race, I hope I don’t have to but she won the Cox Plate third-up last spring and this prep we’re looking at going there at her fifth run.”
“She has had a first-up run and she can go three or four weeks between runs.”
Who Shot Thebarman and Grand Marshall have both had one run back from a spell and the two stayers finished sixth and seventh behind Winx in the Warwick Stakes.
Blake Shinn rides Who Shot Thebarman who has drawn barrier four while Grand Marshall will jump from barrier three with Jason Collett in the saddle.
Preferment is having his first run back since running twelfth to Lucia Valentina in the Group 1 $4m Longines Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m) at Randwick on April 9 and has drawn barrier seven with Tommy Berry to ride.
European imports Storm The Stars (barrier 1, Brenton Avdulla) and Spiritjim (barrier 6, Rory Hutchings) are both making their 2016 Spring Carnival debuts.
Hartnell be taking on Winx again in the Chelmsford Stakes after finishing three and a half lengths behind her when second in the Warwick Stakes and will jump from gate two with James McDonald in the saddle again.
Three year old Prized Icon will be taking on the older horses for the first time at weight for age and trainer James Cummings has engaged Kathy O’Hara to ride the More Than Ready colt who has drawn midfield at five.
