Bold debut expected from Lindsay Park’s Alshahhad
A BETTING plunge on highly-touted two-year-old Alshahhad has failed to surprise Lindsay Park Racing Manager Rayan Moore, who believes the colt is capable of winning on debut at Randwick on Saturday.
Coming into the Sydney meeting on the back of some strong trial performances, including a win in its sole open trial at Wodonga on September 12, means the stable has a solid foundation of lead-in form in which to draw upon.
Punters agree too after Alshahhad firmed from its opening price of $9.50 into $5 at Crownbet for the opening event on the Randwick card.
Moore said the almost-halved quote for the colt is “around the mark”.
“It doesn’t surprise me that there’s been a lot of early money for him,” Moore told HorseBetting.com.au.
“The horse is going really well. He’s been trialing really well down here in Melbourne, and in the official trials up in Wodonga he went really well and then he’s had a trial down the straight.
“We’re pretty happy with what he trialed against down the straight in Melbourne, it was a pretty good form trial that one and two debut wins have come from those straight trials on that day.”
While the two-year-old has been preparing for its maiden run in Victoria, the stable will have no issues when the horse confronts the clockwise course.
Moore said the Lindsay Park operation in Creightons Creek, just shy of two hours north of Melbourne, gives the team flexibility when preparing their horses.
“The beauty of our property here is that we can work on their Sydney leg, and he’s done quite a lot of work on his opposite leg galloping and going through his three quarter pace work and we’re really happy with him.
“It’s an educational tool that we can give them trials on all different tracks.
“It’s been really encouraging being able to win the first couple of two-year-old races here in Victoria and he was a BOBS Bonus horse so we thought giving him a try in Sydney would help with his Magic Millions board.
“He’s eligible to run in the Magic Millions, so we’ll give it a crack on the weekend and see how we go.”
The Magic Millions meet will be in the back of the mind for the Lindsay Park team, but the flexibility of their operation could see the horse journey down to Melbourne for a race during the cup carnival if all goes according to plan.
Moore said if the horse performs as expected on Saturday then a trip down south could await.
“We’ll get out over the weekend, hopefully he can come out and win, but there’s some good feature races here in Victoria over cup week.”
“There’s the Maribyrnong Plate on MacKinnon Stakes Day on the 11th of November, so if he was to win or run well that’s another option.
“We’ll wait and see how he comes through the weekend, but we’re pretty positive he’ll run a bold race.”