Speaker 1So we're Sterling Alexio who's joining us on the program right around the country if you're listening on Radio Tab or Sky Sports Radio because there'll be a lot of punters across the country keen to back Skyhook.
Speaker 2Morning Sterling. Morning boys, how are we?
Speaker 1Yeah, very, very good. How is Skyhook leading into the weekend, mate, because he looked terrific winning that Theo Marks.
Speaker 2Yeah, no, he came through that first up win terrific. Every now and then he can just feel his runs a little bit, but he seemed to pop through it nice and bright. Work Saturday and Tuesday was spot on for him. So I'm really happy with him leading into Saturday.
Speaker 1He's carrying 58 top weight in the Shannon. How much of a challenge is that, do you think, for him?
Speaker 2Oh, look, he's a progressive horse that's sort of starting to get weighted right up to, you know, to the best. You know, he's two kilos off private eye. He's won 13. A million dollars. So, look, I don't think it's any gift of a race on Saturday. You know, he needs to sort of step up again. And, you know, if we want to go until the Golden Eagle, well, he probably needs to be winning on Saturday. He's not running second. So under no illusions, it's still going to be a difficult task Saturday. But he's well and truly got the ability to do it and sort of seems to be on an upward curve, which is, you know, which is nice for everyone involved.
Speaker 1Yeah, it is important. You mentioned the Shannon. On the weekend, because you want to try and get to the Golden Eagle. That's where you've you've really circled on the calendar. Is there any other race in between now and the Golden Eagle that you'd also look at to possibly get him there?
Speaker 2Yeah, probably like his first up run. We sort of wanted to see how he'd come through that, whether we went to the Shannon or the Arlenbrielle or the Silver Eagle. We'll just assess how he gets through Saturday, how his fitness is. Those two races are still on the cards. But as I guess a King Charles, King Charles probably is. But then again, he's going to take that next step at weight for age against some pretty handy customers at the time. So, no, we'll just assess how he comes through Saturday. It wouldn't really worry us if we had to go straight to the Eagle, which is just off a trial. But, yeah, I think those those sort of things are probably decisions for Sunday and Monday at this time.
Speaker 1And is there anything in Melbourne you can get him down to? Because I know that you have always taken horses to that Melbourne race. Melbourne Carnival, if they have, you know, the ability and their program works well, is he has he got enough petrol in the tank? Do you feel to get through a Golden Eagle campaign and then you have something you can target down there, too, or is it all focused on Sydney?
Speaker 2Now, look, we've CFL stakes, which is two weeks after the Golden Eagles always, always been in the playbook. So, you know, Grand Final, Grand Final is obviously the Golden Eagle. But if he comes through that well, we'll most certainly be looking at. Taking him down to Melbourne.
Speaker 1Beautiful. So that's Skyhook Saturday race nine, number two putters. And he goes around in the Shannon stakes. Just jumping back and having a look at last weekend, you must be wrapped with how General Salute returned in that to Bill Ritchie. What did the team make of the performance?
Speaker 2Well, we thought he was going fantastic. Tim, Tim trialed him 12 days previous and said this horse is going as good as ever, if not better than whenever I've ridden him. So probably the only thing that dinted our confidence a little bit, he really appreciates a bit of cut off the track. He was pretty firm there Saturday. So he's a tough old campaigner. He's, you know, for a homebred, he passed through the million dollar mark on Saturday. So, you know, he's done a great, great job for all concerned. The owners have been very patient with him. He's had his little niggles and troubles along the way. But all that patience early sort of really start to pay off for them.
Speaker 1So what do you got planned for him? Because Alan Brown, is that the plan?
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, he'll go to the Alan Brown. He ran second in it last year. So we'll go to the Alan Brown and then sort of assess what we do thereafter, whether we sort of freshen him up or just give him a break and focus on the autumn. The main owner, Ross, that bred him, Ross McMillan, the McMillan family there from up in Queensland. And he really wants to get him up for a stradbroke at some stage. So look how deep we go into a, you know, back end of a spring into the into the summer is a bit of a question mark with him as the as the tracks start to firm up. But we'll just sort of play that by year after the Alan Brown. But he'll go there in really fine form. He come through his win on Saturday.
Speaker 1Fantastic. Look, he he's obviously a horse that's going to go into that race. So for connections, it's fantastic that he can race that type of money. But what do you personally think about the fact we've got an Epson and Alan Brown? And Alan Brown's worth more than an Epson. Can you believe that as a racing lover, purist?
Speaker 2Look, history would suggest, you know, I've won an Epson. So, look, I'm more inclined to think, you know, that prize money should probably be piled into the Epson and, you know, attract a better field there. You know, obviously you're probably going to get split split races now between the Epson and the Alan Brown a week later. I think there's a lot of things we can do programming-wise in Sydney now. There's a lot more of these pop-up races around. You know, but have you got an hour?
Speaker 1No, I've got a couple of minutes. But I like your idea of that. I think personally the way it should be is that a little bit of money comes off the Alan Brown into the Epson. So the Epson's number one in terms of prize money. But it also still gives an opportunity with the Alan Brown for horses that didn't make the Epson field. Or maybe they, you know. A trainer wants to, you know, program a certain with timings to go to the Alan Brown. Still be worth a bit of money, but obviously not as much. I don't think it should be worth as much as your time on a mile.
Speaker 2Yeah, I think mainly it's the timing of it. You know, the week after the Epson, which is good for Golden Eagle horses. It gives them three weeks if you don't want to run your Golden Eagle horse in the Silver Eagle over 1,300. So I can sort of see positives there. It can be a good lead-in to the. Big dance. But all in all, it probably takes away from the Epson. So, I mean, you could argue it could be a better lead-up to the Epson than the Bill Ritchie. But there's a lot of tradition steeped there in the Bill Ritchie. And should it be moved? No, probably not. So, look, I don't know where they go with that race. It'd be nice to win it for us in the Connections. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, at this stage where it sits, yeah, it does take away from the Epson.
Speaker 1Chilly girl. What do we do with her?
Speaker 2Sterling Alexio. Still just thinking on that. She won't go to the flight stakes. You know, we sort of felt she'd run 1,400 on Saturday. Tim said she was terrific. She was tough. She just doesn't run out to seven. So we know that now. Probably give it till over the weekend. We've just kept her trotting around here at the stables. Whether we freshen her up for a Roman Consul. She could head down to Melbourne for a Roses. We could give her a break and get her ready for the sunlight up at the Magic Neon. So they're all three options we're looking at. We'll just got to discuss that with Bert in the next few days. Philly's fine. She come through that run good. But we'll probably make up our mind on Monday one way or the other.
Speaker 1How did Matthias pull up after the Cameron run, the Newcastle run?
Speaker 2He was great. You know, probably out of his comfort zone a little bit. Sort of pretty handy first up. Just run out of carrots late. He'd come. He'd come through that good. He'll have another trial. And he'll run in the Big Dance Wildcard on the 17th at this stage. If he misses a run there. Because he's still quite down in the benchmark ratings. I think he's around a sort of 83 or 84. If he misses a run there, we'll just have to sort of reassess where we go with him. But this stage, that's where we're aiming at running the Big Dance Wildcard.
Speaker 1And last but not least, you had a horse in today called Chinta at Hawkesbury. She's scratched. I see in the noms for Kembler on Saturday.
Speaker 2Yeah, she's still got a long way to come. She's got something there to work with. But she just lacks a bit of race sense at the minute. I think, you know, we've. Well, Ronnie's been really patient with her, the one-loss family. But she's just got a few little quirks. She's got to iron out race day until you see the best of her.
Speaker 1Is there a bet for us coming up? Is it Skyhook? Are you confident? Because when you were confident last time, you said have a bet. You were bang on.
Speaker 2Look, he's going terrific. He's improved. I just think Saturday shapes as a trickier race, Mac-wise. I don't think he's going to enjoy as good a time on Saturday. You know, the Juppies will be well aware of his sort of profile and being a bit of a shorty. They're not going to make it easy for him early. But, look, if he gets run of the race stuff, he'll be incredibly hard to beat.
Speaker 1Good to chat with you, mate. Have a good day. Okay, thank you. There we go. They're sterling Alexio this morning.
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