A distance drop is the only concern for connections of Skyhook as he bids to stretch his winning sequence to four in this Saturday’s $1 million Silver Eagle at Randwick.
The four-year-old has struck a rich vein of form since being ridden on the speed to capture the Hawkesbury Guineas (1400m) in May, winning three of his subsequent four starts.
He’s also unbeaten in two appearances this campaign, taking out the Theo Marks Stakes (1300m) on resumption and dominating throughout in the Shannon Stakes (1500m) last start.
However, he does come back 200m in distance for Saturday’s Silver Eagle (1300m), his final lead-up to the Golden Eagle (1500m) a fortnight later, and co-trainer Sterling Alexiou admits it’s his one reservation.
“Really happy with him, and he’ll take his place in the Silver Eagle,” Alexiou said.
“He’s been in a really good groove all preparation. He does have to come back to 1300, which may be a little question mark with him coming back from 1500.
“But he seems to have freshened up well, so hopefully we’ve got a bit more speed in his legs for that.”
Skyhook is on the third line of Golden Eagle betting, but into $8 after Sheza Alibi eased from $1.60 to $1.80 after last Saturday’s shock defeat. Second favourite, at $6, is Beiwacht.
Skyhook’s stablemate Matias will push his The Big Dance claims on Saturday, set to go around in the $160,000 Big Dance Wild Card (1600m).
The winner of the Frank Packer Plate (2000m) in the autumn, Matias resumed with an encouraging fourth in the Cameron Handicap (1400m) at Newcastle and has had a subsequent trial to keep him up to the mark.
“Hopefully he can run first or second in that race and qualify himself for a Big Dance or Little Dance,” Alexiou said.
“He went to the Cameron Handicap a little bit underdone off only one trial, but you can’t run in the Wild Card if you haven’t run in a qualifier, and that was his chance to run in a qualifier, so he went there with improvement to come.”
Alexiou confirmed smart filly Chilly Girl had gone to the paddock and would be aimed towards The Sunlight at the Gold Coast in January.
