Derby hopes to clash in G2 Alister Clark

Wednesday 13 March 2019, 3:18pm

The presence of star colt The Autumn Sun in the Group One Rosehill Guineas has connections of Declarationofheart happy to be taking a different path with their Australian Derby hopeful.

The Anthony Freedman-trained gelding ran on well at the end of 1600m for seventh in the Group One Australian Guineas at Flemington last start and is set to have his next start in Friday night's Group Two Alister Clark Stakes (2040m) for three-year-olds at The Valley in Melbourne.

Declarationofheart worked at The Valley on Tuesday morning and is set to clash with ruling ATC Australian Derby favourite Global Exchange in the field of 13 for the Alister Clark.

"He's going nicely," Freedman's son, and assistant trainer, Sam Freedman, said.

"We were going to go to the Rosehill Guineas but obviously The Autumn Sun is going there now so we'll be avoiding him and this is a nice race for him.

"We're looking forward to getting him out to the 2000 metres and then hopefully to the mile and a half (2400m) after that."

Trainer Chris Waller has confirmed multiple Group One winner The Autumn Sun will progress to Saturday week's Group One Rosehill Guineas after charging home to win the Randwick Guineas (1600m) last Saturday.

Freedman said the $2 million Group One ATC Australian Derby (2400m) at Randwick on April 6 was Declarationofheart's goal this campaign.

"If everything continues to go well, we'll get through the race this weekend and then look to head towards the Derby," he said.

Freedman said Declarationofheart had come through the Guineas well and should be suited by the distance rise.

"Although The Valley probably isn't the perfect track for him, it's a necessary run we need to get into him in order to get him out to that mile and a half trip," he said.

– AAP

Latest News

Prime Thoroughbreds - We have a Host of Leaders in our Team

Tuesday, 29 June 2021

Prime Thor­ough­bred’s cur­rent rac­ing team is putt­ing to­gether quite a re­cord. We have 22 hors­es that have raced in our team at pre­sent. Six­teen of th­ese are win­n­ers in­clud­ing the Stakes win­n­ing trio Ru­bisa­ki, Fituese and Xtreme­time with Miss Di­vine Em and Miss In Charge run­n­ing 4th in Stakes races. This sees a stakes win­n­er to win­n­er ra­tio of 18.75% with a stake’s per­formed to win­n­er ra­tio of 31.25%. Th­ese are ex­cep­tio­n­al fig­ures.   More »

Freedmans land maiden Group One win

Saturday, 27 February 2021

Un­der-rat­ed fil­ly For­bid­den Love has emerged as an au­tumn car­ni­val smokey with a bril­liant per­for­mance to win the Sur­round Stakes at Rand­wick.  More »

Capriccio completes Damian Lane treble

Saturday, 27 February 2021

In a big day for coun­try-trained hors­es, War­r­nam­bool fil­ly Capric­cio has tak­en out the In­glis Dash for Daniel Bow­man.  More »

More news headlines »