Blue Diamond Stakes winner Devil Night remains a live chance to take his place in the Golden Slipper with co-trainer Michael Hawkes confirming he has returned to their Rosehill stable.
The colt was the talk of Randwick on Saturday after two horses who finished behind him in Victoria’s premier two-year-old race, runner-up Tentyris and seventh-placed Tempted, came out and won the Todman Stakes (1200m) and Reisling Stakes (1200m) respectively.
Both now share the second line of Golden Slipper betting at $7 with online betting sites behind Todman Stakes runner-up Wodeton ($5), and Hawkes says Devil Night ($15) is on track to join them in the $5 million Golden Slipper (1200m) next Saturday week.
“The Melbourne form is definitely holding up,” Hawkes said from Randwick on Saturday.
“He’s here in Sydney. He’s in the stable and he is progressing well. We’ll take him one step at a time but he is a chance of lining up.
“We want to be 100 per cent happy, that’s what we’ve got to make our decision on, and everything is OK at the moment.”
Devil Night has done all his racing in Victoria, finishing runner-up in the Blue Diamond Prelude (1100m) at Caulfield at his only other start.
However, he is no stranger to the clockwise direction, having done his early education in Sydney where he has trialled twice.
The Hawkes Racing team also has Silver Slipper runner-up West Of Swindon in line for a Slipper start with that colt to tackle the Pago Pago Stakes (1200m) at Rosehill next Saturday to top him off for the major.
“He’s down to trial on Monday, whether we do give him a tick-over trial or we work him Tuesday, we’ll see how we go over the weekend,” Hawkes said.
“But he’s really good and he’s Pago Pago bound.”
Hawkes also confirmed Saturday’s Randwick Guineas placegetter Swiftfalcon was being aimed towards the Doncaster Mile (1600m) although they were still to decide if he would contest the Rosehill Guineas (2000m) in the lead-up.
