Trainer Annabel Neasham is looking on the bright side with two-year-old Castanya despite an untimely setback forcing her to compress the filly’s Golden Slipper timetable.
Castanya was scratched from last Saturday’s Reisling Stakes due to a foot abscess, leaving Neasham little option but to push her final lead-up run back seven days to this weekend’s Magic Night Stakes (1200m) at Rosehill.
That will give the last-start winner a seven-day turnaround into the Golden Slipper (1200m), and while it isn’t Neasham’s preference, she says Shinzo (2023) and the James Cummings ‘-trained Kiamichi (2019) have shown in recent years that it can be done.
“It’s not ideal going there (to the Golden Slipper) with the back-up, but we saw Shinzo do it and the Cummings’ filly did it a few years ago,” Neasham said.
“She is the sort of filly where if it’s a very high pressure race, which it should be, she will be one of the strongest ones late.”
While Castanya missed some work last week, she was able to gallop on Saturday, albeit without a shoe on her affected hoof.
Neasham is hopeful the abscess site will continue to improve and if that happens, Castanya will take her place at Rosehill where she will be bidding to cement her spot in the Golden Slipper (1200m) for which she is currently 20th in the order of entry.
Castanya has proven herself to be one of Sydney’s better two-year-old fillies, finishing runner-up to Slipper second favourite Switzerland on debut in January and sweeping home to beat the boys in the Listed Lonhro Plate last start.
Saturday will be her first start beyond 1000 metres, but her racing style suggests she will relish the extra ground.
With Gai’s Artist scratched shortly after acceptances due to wide gate, a field of 11 is set to line up in the Magic Night in what will be the final chance for the fillies to secure a Golden Slipper berth.
Chris Waller’s promising youngster Gatsby’s heads the charge in the Pago Pago Stakes (1200m) for the colts and geldings, while Matt Laurie has paid up for Victorian Coleman who suffered his first defeat when unplaced in the Blue Diamond Stakes last start.