News

The Golden Slipper or the Sires' Produce Stakes for All Too Hard

27th Mar 2012

Daily Telegraph - Brett Zerafa - Monday, 26 March 2012

DOES Nathan Tinkler go for the jugular and ignite Black Caviar's little brother All Too Hard in a $3.5 million Golden Slipper?

It is, after all, the richest prize in Sydney racing and a contest that has shaped the stallion landscape in this country for more than 50 years.

Or does he bypass the spotlight and go for the easier, and significantly cheaper, option of the Sires' Produce Stakes a week later?

Team Hawkes, who prepare the unbeaten colt, are yet to publicly confirm their position but have indicated that all will be revealed following Saturday's Pago Pago Stakes.

Racetrack talk suggests he would be long-odds to race on Saturday and back up seven days later in a rough-house Golden Slipper.

But trainer John Hawkes is holding firm, saying he won't be swayed by the big money and will do whatever is best for the horse.

"We'll just get over Saturday and take it from there," he said.

Even those at Patinack Farm, Tinkler's racing operation which owns the colt, have no inkling whether he will be running in the Slipper.

All Too Hard is already an extremely valuable commodity given his relation to the fastest horse in the world.

Having a Golden Slipper on his resume would be like striking another coal mine for his billionaire owner.

Winning a Sires' Produce is also valuable given the Group 1 status, but will All Too Hard be then always remembered as the horse who dodged the best?

Ratings expert Gary Crispe believes All Too Hard has the ability to beat hot-favourite Samaready and Gai Waterhouse's unbeaten colt Pierro.

"Samaready reached a rating of 121 winning the Reisling Stakes, which was a touch down on her Blue Diamond win," he said. "Pierro and Epaulette rated 122 in the Todman and All Too Hard was 120 in the VRC Sires' Produce but is on a rapid rise and could easily go much better than that figure on Saturday."

Professional punter Steve Fletcher is of a similar position and has indicated he will be putting his money on All Too Hard to win whatever he contests.

"If he goes to the Slipper, then I don't think they can beat him," he said.

The Pago Pago and Magic Night are the final throw at the stumps for connections aiming to get a start in the Golden Slipper, and one punter who had $5000 on Collect at $101 is desperate for the Kevin Moses-trained galloper to make the field.Victory will assure a start and Moses is delighted with his progress after he finished third to Ashokan in the Skyline Stakes.

"I feel lucky to be able to train a horse like him," Moses said. "He is a real gentleman, perfect to deal with, and I think he has a lot of ability. If we can get him in to the Slipper it would be fantastic. If not, he will go to Sires' Produce."

Peter Robl has picked up the ride on Foxwedge's little sister She's A Fox as Anthony Cummings aims to sneak her in to the Golden Slipper.

John O'Shea intends to press on with Faustus's Golden Slipper aspirations despite a disappointing effort in the Todman."We will approach things a little differently in the Slipper and take the blinkers off and bounce him out and put him in the race," he said.