Trainer Craig Carmody, who guided the dam Everage to stakes victories, is diligently nurturing the raw talent of promising three-year-old gelding Sir Les.

The son of All Too Hard made a strong impression in his initial two races before securing a close fifth in a benchmark 72 Midway event at Rosehill Gardens on May 30th.

Carmody has deliberately spaced Sir Les’ starts to focus on refining his ability to settle, a trait he hopes will be evident in a three-year-old benchmark 72 contest over 1100m at his home track, Royal Randwick, this Saturday.

“He’s going well,” Carmody stated.

“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.”

While Sir Les has demonstrated capability over 1000m in his opening two wins, the 1100m distance in town presents a key question. However, Carmody is confident Sir Les can develop into a dependable sprinter for years to come.

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

“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.”

Punters can find competitive racing odds for Saturday’s meeting at Royal Randwick on Australian betting sites.