Champion trainer David Hayes is convinced his Golden Slipper contenders are better chances than their odds suggest.
Hayes and the rest of the Lindsay Park training partnership has Blue Diamond Stakes runner-up Enbihaar and dual stakes winning colt Long Leaf in Saturday’s $3.5 million Golden Slipper at Rosehill, while Qafila is first emergency.
Enbihaar was at $41 on Thursday while Long Leaf was at $81.
“I think Enbihaar has had a perfect build-up,” Hayes said.
“She’s right over the odds considering she nearly beat Written By and a filly she did beat in the Blue Diamond Prelude (Seabrook) came out and won in Sydney.
“She has good winning form around her and I wouldn’t worry about her trial last week because we rushed her forward in that and she likes being held together.
“It was more about experience.”
Enbihaar finished second in a Randwick barrier trial on heavy ground last week.
The filly, who came from near-last in the Blue Diamond, has a couple of gear changes including the addition of a near-side blinker and a near-side bubble cheeker.
Long Leaf went into the Blue Diamond as one of the leading chances after winning his first three starts but the colt finished 12th.
He has blinkers replacing winkers for the first time on Saturday.
“He’ll be a different horse come Slipper day,” Hayes said.
“I’ve always thought about putting blinkers on him but he kept winning so I never changed.”
Hayes anticipates the colt will settle back from a wide gate and hopefully run home strongly.
“His trial at home was outstanding in the blinkers,” Hayes said.
“He’s got a bad gate but we’ll probably ride him patiently in the mould of Von Costa De Hero who just got beaten by an inch by Sebring (in 2008). He’s huge each-way odds.”
The Lindsay Park team has also accepted with Qafila who is an emergency.
“What made me accept was the class of work she did on Tuesday morning on the course proper at Randwick,” Hayes said.
“It was just outstanding.”
Rosehill was rated soft on Thursday and Hayes said a rain-affected track would be an unknown for his stable’s chances, and most of their rivals.
