There is still a bit to play out before the final field for the Golden Slipper is revealed and trainers Gerald Ryan and Sterling Alexiou are among those making a belated bid to saddle-up a runner in the $5 million juvenile centrepiece.
With Brosnan heading to Melbourne for the Sires’ Produce Stakes (1400m) at Flemington on Saturday, the training partners will rely on Williamsburg in the Pago Pago Stakes (1200m) at Rosehill.
Ryan has earmarked the Snitzel colt as more of a Sires’ Produce and Champagne Stakes type of horse, but he will happily entertain a 2022 Golden Slipper start if Williamsburg can stand up and be counted.
“If he happened to win on Saturday, we would give serious consideration to backing him up because he cops it really well and he does appear as if he ploughs through the mud,” Ryan said.
Williamsburg’s two starts have been on soft tracks, the youngster finishing runner-up to Robusto at Warwick Farm in February before going one better at Newcastle when he overhauled Saturday’s rival Standing Order to win impressively.
Brenton Avdulla sticks with him and he will again be ridden patiently from the outside gate.
Ryan and Alexiou will also start Atoine in the Magic Night Stakes (1200m) for the fillies and while the Slipper isn’t on her radar, the stable regard her highly.
She endured a handful of early setbacks, some of them self-inflicted, including when she got her head in the adjacent barrier on debut, bombing the start and “just following them around”.
Her trainers tipped her out to prepare her for the autumn carnival, but she was balloted out of several races before finally gaining a start at Canterbury and finishing strongly for second to stablemate Psychiatrist.
“She is a lovely filly, lovely to look at, big, strong, and has a good brain on her,” Ryan said.
“Without talking to the owners, the Slipper has never been there. If she won on Saturday, they could discuss it….but I was going to aim her at the Percy Sykes (Stakes).”
The Golden Slipper (1200m) is at Rosehill on Saturday week with the $1 million Percy Sykes Stakes (1200m) at Randwick on April 9.