News

Fear No Other bids for $1m Golden Rose

11th Aug 2009

AAP Racing - Glenn Davis - Tuesday, 11 August 2009

Inglis Classic winner Fear No Other will make a last-ditch bid to qualify for the $1 million Golden Rose when he returns to Sydney for The Run To The Rose at Rosehill on Saturday.

Glen Colless, who rode the three-year-old when runner-up to Fab Fevola at Doomben on August 1, has retained the ride in the 1300-metre Group Three feature.

Fear No Other was also nominated and was allotted topweight of 58.5 kilograms for a 1200-metre three-year-old race at Doomben on Saturday.

Trainer Liam Birchley believes Fear No Other will need to win or run second in Sydney to qualify for the Group One Golden Rose although he has almost $200,000 in prizemoney.

"The prizemoney he earned by winning the Inglis Classic in January doesn't count towards the Golden Rose so he'll need to win or run second on Saturday to qualify," Birchley said.

"I only nominated him for Brisbane in case it got too wet for him in Sydney.

"They've had some showers in Sydney but it's expected to be fine for the rest of the week so he'll go down tomorrow night."

Birchley took Fear No Other to Grafton last month hoping to pick up a $50,000 bonus which would have gone a long way to qualifying the son of Iglesia for the 1400-metre feature on August 29.

Unfortunately, Fear No Other could finish only second to The Mikado in his first start for six months at Grafton and then was runner-up to exciting Gold Coast three-year-old Fab Fevola last start at Doomben.

Birchley plans to send Fear No Other to Sydney on Wednesday or Thursday but only for a short campaign before turning him out for a break.

"What he's done so far has been good but he's still six months away from reaching his full potential," Birchley said.

"He's still very immature and I only want to give him a light campaign.

"He's nominated for the Caulfield Guineas but I'd say he's 100-1 to start in that."

Birchley has several stable runners preparing for the spring including Court Command who resumes at Eagle Farm on Wednesday and last season's top two-year-old Paprika.

Paprika has been in pre-training for three weeks following knee surgery and will head straight to Melbourne to resume in the Group Two Schillaci Stakes (1000m) at Caulfield in October ahead of her main mission, the Group One Coolmore Stakes (formerly Ascot Vale Stakes) at Flemington on Victoria Derby day.

Paprika suffered the only defeat of her five-start career when runner-up to Phelan Ready in the Magic Millions Classic (1200m) at the Gold Coast in January.

"She had surgery to take out fragments in both front knees after the race but they were only the size of grains of sand," Birchley said.

Birchley almost caused a major upset with outsider Sniplaz who finished second to Shellscrape in the Group Three San Domenico Stakes (1000m) at Randwick last Saturday.

Sniplaz arrived back in Birchley's stables on Monday but will soon head back south to run in the Group Three Up And Coming Stakes (1200m) at Randwick on Saturday week.