Luke Currie made the trip from Melbourne to handle the Anthony Freedman-trained
Blue Diamond winner Lyre, who was super impressive in her first public outing in
Sydney.Sitting wide throughout Lyre cruised around the field and took up the running soon after straightening and, under a tight hold from Currie, Lyre cruised to the line two lengths clear of the unraced Deep Field gelding Deep Sea recording 1.5.9 for her 1050m heat with the last 600m in 36.2.
In the previous heat the Peter and Paul Snowden trained Catch Me, also impressed for Kerrin McEvoy coming from well back and slicing her way through the field to take over midway up the straight and hold unraced Frankel colt Significance.
Lyre was marginally more impressive on the clock than Catch Me which recorded 1.6.3 in winning by a half-length with the last 600m knocked over in 36.7.
Catch Me is attempting to recapture the form that had her as one of the Golden Slipper favourites following easy wins at her first two starts.
In two subsequent runs she failed to place in the Group II MRC Blue Diamond Prelude and Group I MRC Blue Diamond Stakes when overracing and doing herself no favours in transit.
Maybe a return home to Sydney will improve her racing manners as her ability has never been in question.
Loving Gaby was the last of the three Golden Slipper aspirants to trial at Randwick and she made light work of her heat, winning over 740m in 44.40 seconds.
The Ciaron Maher and David Eustace-trained filly jumped well and raced outside the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained Shuwaamekh before drawing away from that filly late to win by 2-1/4 lengths.
Loving Gaby has had only two starts, winning on debut and then finishing sixth as favourite in the Group I MRC Blue Diamond Stakes when held up for a run, so could easily be the dark horse for the Golden Slipper despite her lack of experience.
Images - Grant Courtney
