John O’Shea and Tom Charlton will not be represented in The Metropolitan by the horse who entered spring their top seed for that event, but they are keen to see another member of the team get his chance to press his claims for a start in that race this weekend.
The Randwick training team is eager to see untapped import Starzintheireyes gain a start in the $300,000 Group 2 Kingston Town Stakes (2000m) on his home track.
The import is yet to win in four runs in Australia, but was a luckless second first-up when narrowly beaten by The Mona Lisa, and Charlton is bullish about his future.
“He’s been unfortunate not to win yet in Australia,” Charlton said.
“He’s got a load of class and it was a big performance (last start).
“We’re pretty sweet on him and at some stage the penny will really drop.”
Starzintheireyes, a son of Starspangledbanner, came to Australia a winner of two of five starts, including the Group 3 Zetland Stakes (2011m) at Newmarket.
The five-year-old had three runs in his first Australian preparation, for a second placing over 1800m in benchmark 78 grade at Hawkesbury, a BM88 third over 2000m at Randwick and a sixth placing in 2000m BM100 at Flemington on June 6.
He has the second-lowest rating of the 19 entries for the Kingston Town Stakes, which is restricted to a field of 14, plus emergencies, but Charlton expects him to outrun his rating if he gains a start.
“If he ran well it could open the door of a Metrop,” he said.
“But he’ll keep improving. He might end up in a nice race.”
The only Kingston Town entry ranked lower than Starzintheireyes is Aethelwulf – who is favourite for the $750,000 Group 2 The Metropolitan on October 3 – with entries headed by ATC Australian Derby winner Green Spaces.O’Shea and Charlton also have Athabascan entered.
King Pedro is not nominated after falling victim to an elevated temperature, which ended dreams of a start in The Metropolitan for the last-start Grafton Cup winner, but Charlton remains hopeful of still seeing him back at the races at some stage this spring.
“We’re assessing him at the moment and perhaps where we can get to, but the Kingston Town is just going to come a little bit too quick,” he said.
The Kingston Town Stakes is one of four Group 2 races to be run at this Saturday’s Randwick meeting, which will be headlined by Autumn Glow’s appearance in the $1 million Seven Stakes (1600m).
