O’Shea filly looking Pretty for spring

John O’Shea-trained Pretty In Pink (yellow) will be aimed at early season stakes races in Sydney.

John O’Shea is a competitive man but he will be happy if Pretty In Pink can come home with some Silver during the Sydney spring carnival.

The Group Two winner is back in work at O’Shea’s Randwick stable and while he has pencilled her in for some of the traditional mares races, he also has his sights on a new addition to the racing calendar, the $500,000 Silver Eagle (1300m) at Randwick in October.

The race is restricted to four-year-olds and is a lead-up to the inaugural $7.5 million Golden Eagle three weeks later.

Pretty In Pink beat her male counterparts to post her first stakes win during the winter carnival in Brisbane and was not disgraced when beaten just over five lengths by Trekking in the Group One Stradbroke Handicap.

O’Shea hopes she can continue to progress into her four-year-old season.

“She’s in the stable this week and I’m looking forward to her preparation in the spring in Sydney. There’s a lovely group of mares races for her to go around in,” O’Shea said.

“She’ll look to resume in the Sheraco mid-September then go to the Golden Pendant and then whether we run in the Angst (Stakes) or the Silver Eagle, there are a lot of options for her as a four-year-old.”

The carnival preparations of O’Shea’s Randwick neighbours Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott are also ramping up at Tulloch Lodge.

Dawn Passage will be among their early season runners. The youngster showed a superior turn of foot to score an impressive win at Randwick on Australia Day and finished third to subsequent Group One winner Castelvecchio at his only other start in the Inglis Millennium at Warwick Farm.

“He had a nice, long break and we’ve taken our time getting him back to where he is,” Bott said.

“He’ll have a couple of nice trials and a good build-up. He’s on a Golden Rose path.”

McKell Cup winner Hush Writer and lightly raced four-year-old Wolfe both trialled on Friday and are also slated to resume early in the new racing season.