Racing: Golden Slipper start on agenda

Banchee (outer) beats Cellar Master on Saturday. Jimmy Choux (third) and Charma (fourth) are further out. Photo / Greg Bowker

Hastings owners Sam and Belinda Kelt had yet to finalise yesterday whether they would take a six-figure gamble on running Banchee in the Golden Slipper Stakes (1200m) at Rosehill on April 3.

However, Matamata trainer John Sargent is confident the A$150,000 late fee for the world's richest 2-year-old race - due by March 29 - would be money well spent.

Sargent rates the brave winner of the group one $200,000 Auckland Diamond Stakes (1200m) at Ellerslie on Saturday one of the best juveniles he's trained.

What's more, he's adamant she would be even better suited to recent winning patterns in the A$3.5 million group one dash, a race that's become notorious for blistering early speed and roughshod tactics.

"It's proven that our horses can't compete for speed against their best 2-year-olds, but this horse races best when she gets back and a race like the Slipper sets up for her," said Sargent.

"The winner has come from the back for three of the last four years."

Kelt paid $375,000 for the half-sister to dual group-one winner Katie Lee as a yearling.

Yesterday's win - her third from just five starts - still leaves her stake-earnings close to $100,000 shy of that.

Aside from the A$2 million winner's cheque in the Slipper on April 3, Banchee also has the option of running in the A$300,000 Champagne Stakes (1600m) at Randwick three weeks later.

Rider Leith Innes settled the Oratorio filly handier than usual on Saturday to make use of her inside gate.

In her two previous runs, for third in the Karaka Million and her narrow but game last-start win in the group two Matamata Breeders' Stakes, Innes and Banchee had jumped from the outside and settled well off the early speed.

Despite the change in tactics, however, she still showed on Saturday that she's better chasing than leading.

Hastings raider Jimmy Choux, aided by a faultless return to form from rider Jonathan Riddell, ranged up and clearly headed Banchee inside the final 150m.

But Innes, who won the trophy for the best rider at the cup carnival for his win on Banchee, was able to find another gear. "She's a great little fighter and has hind-quarters like a colt," said Innes, who won the 2008 event aboard Fully Fledged.

"She's just a pleasure to ride. She just idled along off the bit. They went reasonably quick, but I've waited and waited. Jimmy Choux was going to be hard to get past, but the last 15 or 20 strides he started to get a bit wayward in his first start right-handed and I knew I had him the last bit.

"She goes to sleep, but you know when you ask her she's got another gear and she's going to give 110 per cent. She's going to be a cracking 3-year-old."

If the Slipper trip doesn't eventuate, her beaten rivals on Saturday will all be lining up for a crack at her leading 2-year-old title in the $200,000 group one Manawatu Sires Produce Stakes (1400m) on the same day.

Opie Bosson and Cellarmaster, just a head back in second, were chopped out of an inside gap near the 250m and will relish the extra 200m left-handed next month.

The same can be said for Jimmy Choux, just a nose further adrift in third, and fourth-placed Charma, who rattled home wide from the back.

Charma's rider Mark Sweeney protested for alleged interference by Jimmy Choux in the home straight.

Riddell copped a warning, but the margin between the pair - a length and a quarter - combined with the relatively minor brush wasn't considered enough for a change in placings.

Karaka Million winner Sister Havana was a big disappointment.

Rider Mark Du Plessis was forced to race three wide without cover throughout and the pair battled into eighth.

When questioned by stipes after the race Du Plessis said the filly travelled only fairly in the run and failed to respond to his riding in the straight.

A post-race vet exam failed to show any abnormalities.