John O’Shea unveiled a potential Golden Slipper prospect in Faustus at Rosehill on Saturday.
The strapping colt started at double-figure odds ($11) in the Nova 969 Fitzy & Wippa Handicap (1100m) but O’Shea said that was more a reflection on the quality of the field Faustus overcame to win by a half-neck over the Gai Waterhouse-trained favourite Kuchinskaya ($3.40).
The Peter Snowden-trained Limes ($3.80) was another 1-3/4 lengths away third while Dances On Stars ($4.20) lost ground at the start before running into fourth.
Faustus, by More Than Ready, will head to the paddock with O’Shea eyeing the autumn.
“Doesn’t he have a beautiful action?” O’Shea said.
“He’s a lovely horse and he’ll go out now and then come back in the autumn hopefully with a bit of luck.
“We came here thinking he was a really nice chance but with the boom around so many others we obviously had a bit of trepidation.
“It was a great ride from Jim (Cassidy). He just cuddled him to the line because he definitely got a bit lost when he got out to the centre of the track.”
O’Shea has had good success with two-year-olds such as Charge Forward, Solar Charged, Elite Falls and Foxwedge in previous seasons but is yet to win a Golden Slipper.
Charge Forward came closest for the trainer when second to Dance Hero in 2004.
The Randwick conditioner said Faustus would likely head to a Slipper lead-up such as the Skyline Stakes in the autumn.
“I felt he would be a lovely horse that would line up in something like the Skyline and if he had one run going into that it might formulate a nice plan into the Slipper,” O’Shea said.
Cassidy positioned Faustus in the box seat behind Kuchinskaya and despite showing greenness in the straight was good enough to get the better of the leader in the run to the post.
“He was still very new and there’s unbelievable improvement in him. Beautiful horse,” Cassidy said.
Tommy Berry said Kuchinskaya’s trackwork was every bit as good as last week’s winner Driefontein but said when he let her off the bit in the race she didn’t know what to do.
“But when Jimmy’s horse came up to her she fought like a tiger,” Berry said.
“I think it’s just going to take a bit longer for her to learn how to kick and keep hitting the line, but it was a good effort.”
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