Patinack Farm will play a hand in each of the three-year-old features at Rosehill on Saturday after electing to split Trophies and Strength.
The team was to the fore at Randwick last weekend when Longport ($81) staged a major upset to win the Group Two Tea Rose Stakes on protest.
In Strength, Trophies and filly Roll The Bones, Patinack Farm has a trio of three-year-olds at double-figure odds striving to strike for them again.
Strength will fly the flag in the Listed Dulcify Quality (1900m) provided he continues to please trainer John Thompson following a tough run last weekend.
Dual acceptor Trophies has been scratched from that race to tackle the Group Two Stan Fox Stakes (1500m).
The colt showed marked improvement last start to run second to boom three-year-old Proisir in the Spring Stakes at Newcastle (1600m) after finishing down the track at his first two runs from a spell.
Patinack Farm racing manager Robyn Hartney said Trophies needed a couple of runs to get race fit and the Stan Fox would provide a good pointer to their plans for the rest of the spring.
“A few of our three-year-olds were still pretty big leading into their first and second runs and John (Thompson) thought third-up he would be ready to show something,” Hartney said.
“He ran a game race last start and never gave up. He held on well.
“Saturday’s Stan Fox will give us a good idea of where we go.”
Trophies holds nominations for the Spring Champion Stakes (2000m) at Randwick on Saturday week, the Caulfield Guineas (1600m) a week later and the Victoria Derby (2500m) on November 3.
Jim Cassidy, who partnered Longport to her Tea Rose Stakes victory, is in the saddle.
Roll The Bones will round out Patinack’s three-year-old assault in Sydney when she tackles the Listed Reginald Allen Quality (1200m).
Tellingly, Thompson has followed a similar pattern to the one he used with Longport leading into the Tea Rose.
That filly was freshened and given a barrier trial after flopping two starts ago and she bounced back to win a Group Two.
Roll The Bones has also been kept fresh after failing to fire in the Furious Stakes and Thompson kept her up to the mark with a barrier trial.
“The key to her is the drop back to 1200 metres and keeping her fresh,” Hartney said.
“We’ve always had a nice opinion of her.”
