Craig Carmody, who previously trained Sir Les’ dam, Everage, to stakes success, has been diligently focusing on nurturing the promising three-year-old gelding’s inherent talent.
The All Too Hard gelding made a notable impression in his initial two races before finishing a close fifth in a benchmark 72 Midway event held at Rosehill Gardens on May 30th.
Carmody has opted to give Sir Les time between starts to work on his settling ability, a trait he hopes will be evident when the horse contests a three-year-old benchmark 72 race over 1100m at his home track, Royal Randwick, on Saturday.
“He’s going well,” Carmody commented.
“He’s had a bit of time in between runs because I just wanted to work a bit on his ability to sort of respond to pressure. He’s been sort of wanting to charge through pressure, as you’ve probably realised when he’s raced, just going a little bit hard.”
“I’ve worked really hard trying to get that going a bit better and I feel as though Chad (Lever) might get a little bit better response on Saturday from him.”
Having won his first two races over 1000m, the 1100m journey in town will be a key test for Sir Les, but Carmody believes he can develop into a stable mainstay for future racing seasons.
“I really needed the last month just to work on getting that response going a little bit better,” Carmody stated.
“And look, I’m optimistic that I’m winning that battle, so I’d love to for him to show that on Saturday that he’s listening to the bridle a bit better.”
“I trained the mother, she was a very handy two-year-old, she won what is now the Percy Sykes, formerly the Keith Mackay, we only paid twenty thousand for her and that sparked the interest in Sir Les.”
“He’s only young so I’m in no hurry to race him often, I just want to want to get some lessons into him, get some experience into him, because I think he’s going to be a very handy four-and-five-year-old sprinter.”
Betting markets for the three-year-old benchmark 72 at Royal Randwick are now open with leading racing betting markets.