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Sweet Leader will have the opportunity next week to further press his claims for a crack at an upcoming Group One feature.
Scratched from Arawa Park on Sunday due to a heavily rain-affected track, the Sothys New Zealand 2000 Guineas entry will step out at Te Rapa on Wednesday.
“We’ve been very pleased with the turn of foot he’s got and he wouldn’t be able to show that on heavy footing,” said Andrew Scott, who trains the O’Reilly colt with Lance O’Sullivan.Out of a half-sister to the multiple Australian Group Two winner Le Zagaletta, Sweet Leader finished third in his only two-year-old outing behind the subsequent stakes winner Ichiban.
“It was an educational run and he was gawking around,” Scott said.Following a break, Sweet Leader resumed with a smart performance at Taupo last month to break his maiden.
“He was still quite green in the first half of the race before he got his act together in the last half,” Scott said.“As long as his form warrants it, he’ll continue to head toward the 2000 Guineas.”
Meanwhile, two of the stable’s leading fillies are on target for the Saturday week’s Gr.3 Hawke’s Bay Breeders’ Gold Trail Stakes at Hastings.“Gold Rush will go there and we’re hoping to sneak Glass Slipper in as well – she was quite unlucky at Taupo the other day,” Scott said.
Although still a maiden, Glass Slipper was placed last season in the Gr.3 Eclipse Stakes while Gold Rush won the Gr.2 Matamata Breeders’ Stakes during her first campaign.