The Nick Olive-trained Single Gaze was one of three late-entries for the Group 1 Golden Slipper (1200m) and Olive still can’t quite believe he’ll saddle a runner in the prestigious $3.5 million juvenile race on Saturday.
Golden Slipper hopeful Single Gaze has improved from her runner-up finish in the Black Opal Stakes. Photo by Steve Hart.
“It probably hasn’t 100 per cent sunk in yet to be honest,” Olive told Sky Racing.
“We know we’re in a big race but it hasn’t sunk in that it’s the Golden Slipper.”
Single Gaze’s owners paid the $150,000 late entry fee after the filly ran second in the Group 3 Black Opal Stakes (1200m) on March 8. The filly has been in Sydney since Thursday with Olive keen to settle her in at Rosehill Gardens Racecourse rather than have her tackle a three-hour float trip from Canberra on race morning.
Unfortunately the filly drew a wide gate in the 2015 Golden Slipper barrier draw on Tuesday morning, which has put a dent in her chances at winning the feature race for two-year-olds. Single Gaze drew barrier 16 (of 19) however is set to come two gates in following the scratchings of the three emergencies. Only two winners have come from barrier 14 in the race’s past 32 years, the last of which was Polar Success in 2003.
“It’s the Golden Slipper and we just want to try to hook on to as many of those one per cent things as we can,” he said.
“There’s only 16 horses each year that can go in it, so to make it, I never thought in my wildest dreams we’d get a horse in the Slipper.”
Single Gaze is a $61 hopeful in the Golden Slipper betting at Ladbrokes.com.au, seeing his price continually drift out from $34. Olive understands the filly will be an underdog in the race but believes she’ll run better than her last start in the Black Opal Stakes.
“I don’t know how many she’ll but she’ll be ing horses on the way to the line,” he said.
“Whether she’s good enough to win it, we won’t know until Saturday.
“But I’m confident she’ll run a cracking race.”
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