English warms up for Everest climb

It’s too soon to lay down the gauntlet, but Blake Shinn couldn’t help but mention a rematch with Chautauqua in The Everest after piloting English in an impressive track gallop at Canterbury.

Shinn was still smarting over Chautauqua pipping English on the post to claim his third consecutive TJ Smith Stakes at Randwick and produce one of the highlights of Sydney’s autumn carnival.

“It was one of the most thrilling races, even though we got beat, that I’ve ever ridden in,” Shinn said.

“Let’s hope she can get there (to The Everest) and perform at her best and let’s hope we can have a rematch with Chautauqua and turn the tables.”

The Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained mare, who has the TAB slot for The Everest, cruised through a 1000-metre gallop on Wednesday, covering the last 600m in 34.53 seconds.

She will have a barrier trial at Randwick on Monday.

“She’s exactly where she needs to be at this stage of her preparation,” Bott said.

“She wasn’t asked to do much early but she went through her gears nicely and was given a good hit out to the line.

“Just coming here today, mentally we saw how much she’s matured, She took it all in. She paraded nicely. There weren’t any antics today. That’s also a big positive going forward.”

Bott said English would resume racing in the Group Two The Shorts (1100m) at Randwick on September 16 and have one more run before the inaugural $10 million Everest at the same course on October 14.

Shinn was also impressed with warm-up at a blustery Canterbury.

“She felt super, she displayed a really nice turn of foot,” he said.

“Gai and Adrian wanted her to have a testing gallop just to get her fitness levels where they want at this stage of the preparation. She hit the line nicely.”