Jockey Damian Browne says he won’t be looking for any shortcuts when he rides Solzhenitsyn in Saturday’s Hollindale Stakes at the Gold Coast.
Solzhenitsyn has drawn barrier eight in the 13-horse field which Browne believes can work to his advantage.
“He doesn’t like to be locked away on the fence because he’s a big-striding horse,” Browne said.
“I don’t want to be cluttered up in the field and trying for inside runs. He’s better off with room to move so he can get to the outside and finish the race off hard.”
Solzhenitsyn failed at his only middle distance attempt over 2100 metres in New Zealand but that was at only his third career start as a three-year-old in the Great Northern Guineas at Ellerslie.
Browne believes the way Solzhenitsyn is racing this campaign he will be suited stepping up to 1800 metres.
Trainer Robert Heathcote will switch to the refresh button from pause with Solzhenitsyn whose Sydney campaign was interrupted by wet tracks which caused his late scratching from the Doncaster Mile.
“We were looking forward to the Doncaster but things didn’t quite work out with the weather so this looks a nice race for him,” Browne said.
Solzhenitsyn ran last in the George Ryder Stakes won by Pierro at his latest appearance on April 6 but Browne puts that failure down to the heavy track.
He believes the gelding’s first-up third to Pierro and More Joyous in the Group One Canterbury Stakes at Rosehill on March 23 is a more reliable form reference.
“There’s no Pierro or More Joyous in this race and his form would stack up against anything else in the race,” he said.
Heathcote says although Solzhenitsyn hasn’t raced for a month, he won’t be using lack of fitness as an excuse if the gelding is beaten on Saturday.
The six-year-old is a $4.20 equal second favourite with Foreteller in the Hollindale behind the Peter Moody-trained mare Lights Of Heaven, the $3 favourite.
Lights Of Heaven was runner-up to Shez Sinsational in last year’s Hollindale after only one lead-up run but Moody says she will be fitter this year at her fourth run back from a spell.
