Ten years have passed without a three-year-old winning the Canterbury Stakes, but Tom Charlton, co-trainer, sees Napoleonic ideally placed in his prep to alter that.

Holler achieved it last in 2016 over the older brigade, prepared by Charlton’s colleague John O’Shea.

Both horses won the Red Anchor Stakes (1200m) at Flemington the spring prior, stepping back from 1400m into this Group 1, a dynamic Charlton expects to aid Napoleonic Saturday.

“That should leave him in good stead this weekend,” Charlton said.

“He’s got good form, he comes into this third-up and, we feel, ready to run the best race of his preparation, which should put him right among the chances.”

Napoleonic had March 7 marked, his Hobartville Stakes (1400m) second deciding his focus.

O’Shea and Charlton weighed the Randwick Guineas (1600m), settling on the shorter sprint.

“We always had this race day as a plan, and we were just going to work out whether it was Randwick Guineas or Canterbury Stakes,” Charlton said.

“His last run was excellent, but we concluded the best option would be coming back to the 1300, rather than try to stretch him to a Randwick mile.”

Recent Canterbury Stakes (1300m) lists show no three-year-olds, yet Napoleonic teams with Beiwacht and Nepotism.

O’Shea and Charlton’s potent entry includes returning Linebacker, 2024 Randwick Guineas winner, and Yorkshire from The Ingham.

They target the Doncaster Mile; Yorkshire recovered from injury missing the Liverpool City Cup, Linebacker always set for this opener.

Not at Randwick is juvenile Scintillation, drawn wide in the Reisling Stakes (1200m).

She’ll go to Flemington’s Group 3 Ottawa Stakes (1000m) same day, Charlton said.

“She’s going to run in Melbourne. Just the draw was a bit tricky in Sydney on Saturday.

“She did a good job on debut. She’s a nice, racy filly and hopefully we can get some black type.

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