Last year’s Winter Challenge proved a springboard to Melbourne Cup 2023 success for one runner and connections of 19 gallopers are hoping the final Black Type race of the season in Sydney can be a launching pad to spring success.
Gold Trip resumed with a third placing in the 2022 edition, won by Cross Talk, before going on to win the Melbourne Cup, having earlier finished second in the Caulfield Cup.
Multiple Group 1-winning import Foreteller, Epsom Handicap winner He’s Your Man and $5 million All Star Mile winner Mugatoo are among the others who have won the 1500-metre event since 2011.
Champion Sydney trainer Chris Waller put the polish on Foreteller and He’s Your Man, along with five other winners of the race in the past decade, and has five runners entered for this year’s race; Pollygrey, Brookspire, Bonny Ezra, Longvillers and Brazilian Group 1 winner Iene Fortune.
Favourite in early markets is the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained three-year-old Resonator, from consistent Lindsay Park mare Barbie’s Fox and progressive Ciaron Maher and David Eustace-trained filly Semana, a stablemate to Gold Trip.
Also on the Rosehill card is the $150,000 July Sprint (1100m), which features Express Pass, Zethus, Dragonstone, The Bopper and last Saturday’s brilliant winner Omni Man.
