Racing
Napoleonic ready to do battle in Canterbury Stakes
Napoleonic is among a trio of three-year-olds taking on the older sprinters in the Canterbury Stakes.
No three-year-old has won the Canterbury Stakes in a decade, but co-trainer Tom Charlton believes Napoleonic is at the right stage of his preparation to attempt to break the drought.
The last member of his age group to topple the older sprinters was Holler in 2016, who interestingly was prepared by Charlton's training partner, John O'Shea.
Both horses captured the Red Anchor Stakes (1200m) at Flemington the previous spring, and both will have arrived at the Group 1 race dropping back in distance from a 1400m run, a factor Charlton sees as key for Napoleonic on Saturday.
"That should leave him in good stead this weekend," Charlton said.
"He's got good form, he comes into this third-up and, we feel, ready to run the best race of his preparation, which should put him right among the chances."
While March 7 has long been circled in the calendar for Napoleonic, it was his second placing in the Hobartville Stakes (1400m) that determined which race on the program he would target.
O'Shea and Charlton also had the Randwick Guineas (1600m) back of mind but felt the sharper trip was a better fit.
"We always had this race day as a plan, and we were just going to work out whether it was Randwick Guineas or Canterbury Stakes," Charlton said.
"His last run was excellent, but we concluded the best option would be coming back to the 1300, rather than try to stretch him to a Randwick mile."
Despite the recent lack of three-year-old winners on the Canterbury Stakes (1300m) honour roll, Napoleonic will be among three runners from his age group along with Beiwacht and Nepotism.
He will also form part of a strong hand for O'Shea and Charlton, who have 2024 Randwick Guineas winner Linebacker and The Ingham winner Yorkshire resuming in the same race.
Bot are on a Doncaster Mile path, Yorkshire having recovered from a minor setback that ruled him out of his slated return in last weekend's Liverpool City Cup, while Saturday's race has always been the preferred campaign starting point for Linebacker.
One horse who won't be at Randwick is juvenile Scintillation after she drew awkwardly in the Reisling Stakes (1200m).
Charlton said she would instead head south to take her place in the Group 3 Ottawa Stakes (1000m) at Flemington on the same day.
"She's going to run in Melbourne. Just the draw was a bit tricky in Sydney on Saturday.
"She did a good job on debut. She's a nice, racy filly and hopefully we can get some black type.
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