John O’Shea looks to have an exciting prospect in former Irish galloper Diamil.
The curtain has closed on the Sydney autumn carnival, but trainer John O’Shea still has a few bullets to fire as he prepares to unveil a pair of promising imports at Randwick.
Four-year-old Diamil will line up in Saturday’s Drinkwise Mile (1600m) after showing a dashing turn of foot to win at his second Australian start at Warwick Farm last month.
Not only was the nature of his victory impressive, but the form out of the midweek race has stacked up.
Of the four horses who finished immediately behind him, three have subsequently won, including fifth placed Verona who emerged to claim the Frank Packer Plate at her next start.
O’Shea has a healthy opinion of the lightly-raced entire and says his only reservation on Saturday is an outside gate, although he will have champion jockey James Mcdonald aboard to negate that.
“There is no doubting he’s up to this, although the gate would concern me,” O’Shea said.
“But he’s (McDonald) got to earn his five per cent, hasn’t he.”
From the same family as 2016 Epsom Handicap runner-up Dibayani, Diamil has bigger targets to chase after this weekend with O’Shea eyeing off a start in the $500,000 The Coast (1600m) at the stand-alone Gosford meeting on May 7.
Stablemate and fellow import Mirann, who contests Saturday’s Precise Air Handicap (1800m), also has bigger fish to fry.
He resumes after failing to beat a rival home at his only local start in the Rosehill Gold Cup won by Think It Over in October, a run O’Shea labelled “an aberration” after the horse was caught deep and made an aggressive mid-race move to go to the front before tiring.
The trainer expects a bold showing at Randwick and if Mirann delivers, he will be prepared for some of the upcoming off-season Cup races.
“He is still learning the Australian way of racing, but he is a very nice horse and he can run well on Saturday,” O’Shea said.
O’Shea will saddle up the talented Mr Gee in the same event but said he had a slight leaning to Mirran due to his better draw.