David Vandyke. Photo: Jenny Evans
DAVID VANDYKE will become a key trainer for two Sydney feature races next month should pre-post betting run to script at Rosehill on Saturday.
Vandyke will supply two Rosehill favourites - Choice Words and Keith's Legacy - and he expects them to take positive steps towards their summer goals.
Choice Words will be trying to earn a call-up to stakes racing against all-comers when she resumes as a $4.20 to $3 firmer in the Thoroughbred Breeders NSW Handicap (1100 metres). ''She is headed towards the Razor Sharp Handicap,'' Vandyke said. ''I think it could be a good race for her because she will get in well at the weights.''
Choice Words was sent to the spelling paddock as a three-year-old on the best possible note, beating older horses over 1200m at Rosehill.
The mare has won two barrier trials in readiness for a return, the latest when under restraint at Warwick Farm. Choice Words missed the spring after racing on the fringes of the best autumn company.
''She finished her last preparation with a very good win but she needed a good break,'' Vandyke said.
Apprentice Blake Spriggs, who sent Choice Words out a winner in June and has been on board in both trials, keeps the ride and his claim brings her in close to the minimum weight.
But Vandyke has decided against using a claim on Villiers Stakes hopeful Keith's Legacy in the Austbrokers Handicap (1300m). Keith's Legacy has 59.5 kilograms and gate 12 but holds favouritism in an open market at $4.80.
The former New Zealander is up 5.5kg on a Rosehill win last month (in a higher-rating benchmark race by almost four lengths), and Vandyke has dismissed the impost and seemingly difficult alley.
''This race is an ideal lead-up for him being 1300 metres because it's a nice progression to the Festival Stakes at 1500 metres before the Villiers [1600m],'' Vandyke said.
Keith's Legacy is also better drawn out, he said. ''He's a horse who doesn't like being bottled up. You wouldn't like to see him looking for a run in the straight … he needs to get out and get going.''
The Villiers and listed Razor Sharp Handicap will be run at Warwick Farm on December 22.
❏ Connections of Mount Athos are hoping the five-year-old can capitalise on a good draw in Sunday's Japan Cup to make amends for an unlucky run in the Melbourne Cup.
The Luca Cumani-trained gelding has been handed stall five in the rich group 1 at Tokyo, as he drops back to 2400m following his fifth place in two-mile classic at Flemington.
''The draw is very good news,'' owner Dr Marwan Koukash told the At The Races website.
''I was a bit disappointed we didn't win the Melbourne Cup, but when you look back at the race you have to consider him the unluckiest loser that day.
''The way he finished the race you could say he was the best horse in the race and we got an invite to go for the Japan Cup. He's in great shape. Stepping him back to a mile-and-a-half is the only doubt we have, but he showed enough speed in the last four furlongs to challenge any mile-and-a-half horse.''
Mount Athos is at $7, Ed Dunlop's Red Cadeaux, which has drawn six, is $16 and Marco Botti's Jakkalberry - third in Melbourne - has stall 11 and is at $17. Japan's Orfevre ($2.80) has drawn widest in stall 17, while French raider Solemia ($12), which collared Orfevre close to home to land the Arc de Triomphe last month, has gate 14. The Japan Cup jumps about 4pm Sunday, Sydney time.
AAP, PA
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