Although she has been beaten at her first two starts this campaign, Solicit’s two second placings are enough to say she is the form horse in the Guy Walter Stakes at Randwick.
The mare finished second to short-course specialist Our Boy Malachi in the Expressway Stakes (1200m) and was runner-up to Cox Plate winner Winx in the Apollo Stakes (1400m).
Her trainer Gerald Ryan could not be happier with both efforts.
“She is going as well as she ever has,” Ryan said.
“It took the Cox Plate winner to beat her in the Apollo and back to mares’ class on Saturday I expect her to go well.
“I think she is getting better as she gets older and she is a happy horse.
“She came through the Apollo really well. It didn’t take much out of her.”
Kerrin McEvoy took Solicit to the front in the Apollo and made Winx chase her home.
Although Winx made it look easy in the end, Solicit stuck to her guns and there was a gap between her and the rest of the field.
“I let her roll along and she was relaxed and in her comfort zone,” McEvoy said.
McEvoy will be back aboard Solicit in Saturday’s Group Two race which attracted 13 nominations on Monday.
Winx was among them but she will head to the Group One Chipping Norton Stakes (1600m) leaving her stablemate Amicus as trainer Chris Waller’s sole representative in the 1400m-race named for popular Warwick Farm trainer Guy Walter who died in May, 2014.
Walter’s close friend John Thompson won the race last year with Danesiri and has even more incentive this time around with Zanbagh.
The mare was trained by Walter to seconds in the VRC and Australian Oaks and after a stint with Patrick Payne in Victoria, she came to Thompson late last year.
Zanbagh races in the Tait family’s famous red and white colours carried to 13 Group One wins by the Walter-trained Tie The Knot.
