Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott have pinpointed the Skyline Stakes as the logical next step for star two-year-old Storm Boy as they bid to replicate a winning formula heading into the Golden Slipper.
The unbeaten colt had three weeks between runs when scoring an emphatic win in the Magic Millions Classic in January, and Waterhouse and Bott see no reason to deviate from that recipe as they plot his Slipper bid.
It is the reason they have settled on Saturday’s Skyline Stakes (1200m) at Randwick for Storm Boy’s final lead-up to the Golden Slipper on March 23.
“Obviously, it is an important race for him. It’s a 1200-metre race that will really condition him for that Slipper,” Bott said.
“He’s then got the three weeks in between runs, which is the pattern we followed into the Magic Millions with him.”
Since claiming the Magic Millions, Storm Boy has dazzled with a dominant Rosehill barrier trial win under new jockey James Mcdonald.
Bott says the colt has continued to raise the bar and believes his summer campaign in Queensland has taken him to another level.
“He is more seasoned for the trip away and the experience of some high-pressure races,” he said.
“Everything he does he seems to do it effortlessly, he seems to do it well within himself and hopefully he has something up his sleeve.”
A field of nine will line up in the Skyline Stakes, including Storm Boy’s stablemate and last-start Canonbury Stakes winner Prost, promising Godolphin colt Parkour and Inglis Nursery winner Odinson for Ciaron Maher.
However, none is expected to trouble Storm Boy, who at $1.30 is set to start the shortest-priced Skyline Stakes favourite since the Waterhouse-trained Dance Hero, who won it as a $1.40 hotpot 20 years ago.
Dance Hero is the last two-year-old to conquer the Skyline Stakes-Golden Slipper double and like Storm Boy, he was that year’s Magic Millions winner.
