March 17, 2013Charlie Boy To Stake Slipper Claim
Written by AAPSunday, 17 March 2013 17:46
Golden Slipper favouritism is likely to be determined by the fillies in Saturday’s Reisling Stakes but Charlie Boy will be staking a claim for the colts in the Todman.
Villa Verde, winner of two races in the spring, was displaced as favourite by Overreach when she won last month’s Widden Stakes and the two head the line-up for the Reisling.
Charlie Boy is on the third line of betting for the $3.5 million Golden Slipper on April 6 and trainer Gerald Ryan believes he can improve on his third in the Silver Slipper which was run on a heavy track.
“He’s done really well since the Silver Slipper and I expect him to run well,” Ryan said.
At his only other start in the spring, Charlie Boy beat Windjammer and All The Talk, winner of Saturday’s Skyline Stakes at Warwick Farm in which Ryan’s other Slipper contender Dothraki finished third.
Both Dothraki and Charlie Boy are raced by the Triple Crown syndicate and the trainer said they could not be more different.
“On the training track Dothraki can beat anything,” he said.
“But on race day he’s not going as well as I would like and it’s frustrating.
“Charlie Boy is just an OK worker but he would run through a brick wall.”
Villa Verde has not raced since the spring with her trainer Shaun Dwyer deliberately missing the Blue Diamond Stakes to concentrate on a Slipper campaign.
Overreach finished second to Villa Verde in the Debutants Stakes in the spring but showed the benefit of a return to the Sydney way of going in the Widden when she led from the outset and kicked away in the straight to beat Everage by almost six lengths.
She is the TAB’s $3.80 favourite with Ville Verde at $7 and Charlie Boy at $13.
Silver Slipper winner Sweet Idea is a $17 chance while Dothraki has drifted from $26 to $51 on Saturday’s performance.
The winners of the Reisling and the Todman gain automatic entry to the world’s richest race for two-year-olds.