Asinara heads Gosford challenge

A significant drop in the weights will hopefully compensate for a wide gate when Asinara leads the Godolphin team into action at Gosford on Friday, January 13.

Asinara (John O’Shea/Craig Williams), who runs in the G3 Belle Of The Turf Stakes, carried 61kg at her latest outing when fourth to Shutterbug in fillies and mares company at Rosehill.

While she moves up to G3 level on Friday, she drops seven kilograms and is confronted by similar company.

“Last time out she had a lot of weight and still ran well,” O’Shea said.

“She drops to 54kg here and I think she has a really good chance despite the wide gate.”

The lightly-raced daughter of Teofilo hasn’t won for 12 months, but spent much of her three-year-old season racing in Classic company against Australia’s best fillies.

O’Shea will also run Malice against only five opponents in the Listed Gosford Gold Cup with James Doyle in the saddle, and the trainer is expecting improvement on his last start fourth in the G3 Summer Cup at Randwick.

“I think he can be forgiven for his run the other day at Randwick when he finished just behind them after winning very well at his previous start,” O’Shea said.

“We had a Villiers program in mind for him but the weather intervened and in the end his preparation lacked continuity.”

The team is completed by Grunderziet who will be ridden by Craig Williams in the Listed Takeover Target Stakes.

Grunderzeit showed plenty of promise winning his only two starts last Spring and indicated he had come back to racing in similar form when third in Listed company at Canterbury when first-up.

“We were looking forward to him running at Canterbury last start, but the gate made it difficult for him,” O’Shea said.

“Unfortunately, he’s drawn wide again, but he’s trained on well and if he can get some luck I think he can make his presence felt.”