Joe Pride will unleash his stable big guns en masse at Randwick with a quartet of Group 1 winners set to go around, headlined by top weight-for-age performer Ceolwulf.
The two-time King Charles III Stakes winner will line up in Saturday’s Chelmsford Stakes (1600m), with Headley Grange and Private Eye to clash in the Tramway Stakes (1400m).
Spring Champion Stakes victor Attica has been accepted for both the Chelmsford and the Tramway.
Headley Grange is the yard’s newest member of the Group 1 club after capturing the Kingsford-Smith Cup (1300m) at Eagle Farm in May, and with three wins from five appearances first-up, Pride expects him to get his campaign off to a strong start.
But he will face stiff competition in the form of barn mate Private Eye, who returns to Sydney after kicking off his preparation with an encouraging Group 2 placing at Caulfield, and potentially Attica, who beat all but the in-form Althoff when he resumed at Rosehill last month.
“Headley Grange goes particularly well fresh, so he’ll run very well,” Pride said.
“Attica and Private Eye have the runs under the belt. It’s a shame to clash those three horses but it’s a set weights and penalties race and it fits in well with what I’ve got in mind for them later on.”
Pride is remaining fluid on a spring program for Headley Grange, cognisant the horse’s preferred distance range is similar to that of star mares Autumn Glow and Sheza Alibi.
But with seven wins on rain-affected ground, the trainer believes that might be the key to the six-year-old producing at the highest level again.
“Where does he fit in with all these good mares around?” Pride said.
“He’s a very competitive horse himself, and the best version of him is when he can get on a wet track. If we can get one of those at some point of the carnival he’ll be very hard to beat.”
In his second preparation for Pride, Attica is on an Epsom Handicap path and Pride was satisfied with his return, especially considering he conceded the winner seven kilos and that Althoff has scored again since.
“He hit the big time quickly because he won a Group One at his first ‘prep’ and that makes a horse difficult to place,” Pride said.
“You haven’t had that chance to develop them over starts, which is what I typically do with horses. He’s been fast-tracked into running against the better horses.
“He’s a very good horse himself and I just think it will take him a prep or two to work it all out, but he’s going to be a nice, lightweight Epsom chance.”
The four heavyweights will be among seven Randwick runners for Pride, with Private’s Eye’s half-brother King’s Secret set to be his other feature race representative in the Concorde Stakes (1000m).
