Sully returns to Randwick for Guineas
Sully will be back at the scene of one of his Group One placings when he makes his first Sydney appearance of the autumn in the Randwick Guineas.
Co-trainers Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young opted for Saturday’s Group One 1600m-race in Sydney for Sully’s second-up run rather than last week’s Australian Guineas at Flemington, anticipating a softer track than Melbourne.
Randwick was a soft (5) on race eve.
Sully was third in the Spring Champion Stakes (2000m) at Randwick in October before running second in the Victoria Derby (2500m) at Flemington.
The gelding finished midfield in the C S Hayes Stakes (1400m) at Flemington in his return from a spell and is building towards longer targets.
“He’s going great,” Young said.
“We just had a little foot problem after his last start. He raced a bit flat in the C S Hayes but we had him probably a couple of lengths closer than we would have liked.
“I think at Randwick he’s going to be able to get his toe into the ground a little bit and I think he’ll really love that.
“He has got over that foot problem. We had that extra week to go into it so he’s going into it three weeks after his first-up run.”
Sully was at $41 on Friday with Kementari the $2.60 favourite after two impressive lead-up wins.
Young anticipates Sully will settle back and wants to see him in a good rhythm so he can finish strongly.
“It would be nice if he wins but he’s probably not quite sharp enough to win a Randwick Guineas with some of those colts in there,” she said.
“But he’ll definitely be running a great race, especially on the way he worked on Tuesday morning. I was stoked with the way he galloped.”
The Rosehill Guineas (2000m) and Australian Derby (2400m) are targets for Sully.