The Villiers Stakes didn’t go to plan for Kirwan’s Lane, but John O’Shea is hoping he can come away with a consolation prize at Randwick.
The gelding enjoyed a good trail behind the speed from an inside draw in the Villiers, but it was once he straightened for home that things began to unravel.
“He followed a horse that took him nowhere and then he had to go back to the inside where you didn’t want to be that day,” O’Shea said.
“I wouldn’t read too much into that run.”
Kirwan’s Lane finished ninth, beaten just over four lengths in what was his first run in four weeks.
He was also luckless first-up in the Goulburn Cup (1400m) when he was baulked in the straight and forced to change course before finding the line nicely for sixth.
O’Shea expects him to strip fitter with two runs under his belt and believes Sunday’s Bowerman’s Handicap (1600m) shapes as an ideal target.
“He had had a trial and he was pretty ready for the Villiers. But that will bring him on again and we are happy with the way he is going,” O’Shea said.
“It looks a suitable target on Sunday.”
Punters agree and Kirwan’s Lane is a $3.10 favourite to post his seventh career-win.