Like most, Clinton Mcdonald was impressed with Storm Boy’s win in the Skyline Stakes, but the Blue Diamond-winning trainer is not conceding the Golden Slipper 2024 to the unbeaten colt.
McDonald will chase further glory with his untapped filly Hayasugi in the $5 million event at Rosehill on March 23.
Storm Boy tightened into as short as $2.30 with bookie apps after last Saturday’s win but McDonald considers the two-year-old feature more open than that.
“Storm Boy was very good, he’s an exceptional colt, but I think he’s beatable, for sure,” McDonald said.
“I think he’s very, very good, but I’m not scared of him.”
McDonald is not prepared to put a ceiling on Hayasugi, who completed a clean sweep of the Blue Diamond series with her win in the Group 1 Blue Diamond on February 24.
The daughter of Royal Meeting ran a Timeform figure of 97 to win the Group 3 Preview, lifted that to 108 in the Group 2 Prelude before running to 113 in the Diamond – the highest figure recorded by a two-year-old filly this season.
“You look at her ratings and her ratings (suggest) there’s no ceiling on her at the moment,” McDonald said.
“She just keeps improving with every run, so I didn’t want to go wasting a run in one of those (Slipper) lead-up races.
“I’d rather have her peaking on Golden Slipper Day and I think the way that we’ve trained her, and knowing what we’ve done, I think fourth run in she’s going to be absolutely cherry ripe.”
Hayasugi thrived in the week following her Diamond win and McDonald will keep her ticking over until a trial next week before heading to Sydney in Golden Slipper week.
“I ended up galloping her on Saturday morning the Sydney way because she’s done that well,” he said.
“She just keeps putting weight on, so you’ve actually got to keep working her to keep her under control a bit.
“She’ll trial after the long weekend Sydney way, then she’ll have another final gallop and then she’ll head up probably three or four days before.”
