Sir Les learning lessons before bigger spring targets beckon

Having trained his dam Everage to stakes success, Craig Carmody has been hard at work harnessing promising three-year-old Sir Les’ natural ability.

The gelding by All Too Hard looked impressive winning his first two starts before finishing a narrow fifth in a benchmark 72 Midway at Rosehill Gardens on May 30th.

Carmody has been happy to space Sir Les’ runs while teaching him to settle which he hopes will be on display in a three-year-old benchmark 72 over 1100m at his home track of Royal Randwick on Saturday.

“He’s going well,” Carmody said.

“He’s had a bit of time in between runs because I just wanted to work a bit on his ability to sort of respond to pressure.

“He’s been sort of wanting to charge through pressure, as you’ve probably realised when he’s raced, just going a little bit hard.

“I’ve worked really hard trying to get that going a bit better and I feel as though Chad (Lever) might get a little bit better response on Saturday from him.

Having won his first two runs over 1000m, ticking the 1100m box in town will be the question for Sir Les but Carmody believes he can turn Sir Les into a stable stalwart for seasons to come.

“I really needed the last month just to work on getting that response going a little bit better,” Carmody said.

“And look, I’m optimistic that I’m winning that battle, so I’d love to for him to show that on Saturday that he’s listening to the bridle a bit better.

“I trained the mother, she was a very handy two-year-old, she won what is now the Percy Sykes, formerly the Keith Mackay, we only paid twenty thousand for her and that sparked the interest in Sir Les.

“He’s only young so I’m in no hurry to race him often, I just want to want to get some lessons into him, get some experience into him, because I think he’s going to be a very handy four-and-five-year-old sprinter.”