John O’Shea and Tom Charlton will unveil several of their top-class carnival horses at Tuesday’s Randwick trials as they aim to convert last season’s success into more big-race victories this spring.
The training partners enjoyed a memorable first full season together, celebrating Group 1 wins with Linebacker in the Randwick Guineas (1600m), Schwarz in the William Reid Stakes, and Maison Louis in the Queensland Derby (2400m).
They also finished seventh on the Sydney premiership table with 37 city wins. Charlton said the highlight of the season was the team’s consistent performance.
“All the horses raced consistently throughout each period of the season. There wasn’t a lull period for us and they raced well through the carnivals,” Charlton said.
“We had three Group One winners over a range of distances. A sprint, a mile and also a Derby where we ran one-two. They were also all in different states so that’s a credit to the staff and the processes of what goes into preparing those sort of horses for those races.
“We’ve had lots of winners and our strikerate has been solid. We can only hope to keep building the quality.”
Tuesday’s trials will see the return of stable star Linebacker in a 900m heat as he begins his spring campaign.
“He is probably the flag bearer,” Charlton said.
“If you were to pick the classiest horse, he had an excellent latter stage of his autumn preparation. His run in the Doncaster was without luck but still huge in the circumstances.”
Snow In May and More Territories, both stakes-class mares, will also trial, along with Roselyn’s Star who missed Rosehill due to the wet track.
Several untapped three-year-olds, including Scoop The Pool, O’Sheamus and One Step Closer, are also set to step out, with Charlton identifying them as key prospects for upcoming staying races.
“Napoleonic is a nice Wootton Bassett colt. Burn The Sky was a nice debut winner on the Kensington track and she might end up in the fillies’ (Princess) series.”
Charlton confirmed that import Quietness, runner-up in the Grafton Cup, has been freshened and will return to training this week with the Metropolitan as her spring target.
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