KATSIDIS, STEWART TO RIDE IN GOLDEN ROSE

By Graham Potter | Thursday, August 27, 2009

Stathi Katsidis and Brad Stewart will ride in the $1 million Group 1 Golden Rose at Rosehill on Saturday.

Katsidis has secured the ride on the Clinton McDonald trained Bombay Sling while Stewart will be aboard the Gillian Heinrich trained Sweepstaking.

“The trainer and the owners have always sort of been fans of mine and when Hugh Bowman couldn’t ride, they asked if I’d like to ride the horse (Bombay Sling),” explained Katsidis.

“The horse isn’t without a chance. They are putting the blinkers on for the first time on Saturday. They expect a very bold showing. It’s drawn a good alley. It’s right up there with them. It needs a little bit of improvement to beat the best of them, but if those horses have bad luck then it can win, so it is right there with a chance. It’s one race ... a million dollars!”

Bombay Sling has raced seven times for one win, two second places, two third places and two fourth placed finishes. Of these his runner-up finish in the Group 2 Produce Stakes over 1400m at Flemington (when 2.80 lengths behind Rostova) and his third placed effort last time out in the Group 3 Run To The Rose over 1300m at Rosehill (when 3.00 lengths behind Denman) were the most noteworthy.

Those results place Bombay Sling’s challenge in perspective. His task is complicated by the fact that he is now 1.5kg worse off with Denman compared to when they last clashed, and he races at level weights with Jason McLachlan’s established Group 1 winner Phelan Ready, who is Queensland’s top hope.

Brad Stewart’s mount Sweepstaking has recorded two wins and two placings from her four starts to date. Stewart has ridden her in all four outings.

Sweepstaking won two out of two in his first prep. This time in she has finished third to The Mikado in the Southern Cross 2yo Plate at Grafton and last time out she was beaten into second place by Princess Qualo over 1200m at Doomben.

This run represents a quantum leap up in class for the Gillian Heinrich trained runner and the difficulty of the task increases accordingly.

At the time of writing, Denman tops the betting boards for the Golden Rose at 2.75. Bombay Sling is a 31.00 chance while Sweepstaking is unwanted and lonely at 151.00.

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