Salesman hits the road for Highway debut

Salesman won’t be lonely when he hits the road with the three-year-old coming to Warwick Farm for the Highway Handicap with a large support team.

“All the family’s coming, my husband’s hockey club has their annual bus tour up that day. It’s going to be pretty raucous,” trainer Sarah Murray-Leslie said.

“I’ve got another friend who’s never been to the races and she said she’s coming. That’s what it’s all about isn’t it?

“There’s a bit of expectation on the horse but we’re there to to win otherwise, we’d be going to Wagga.”

Murray-Leslie has been training for 15 years but Salesman will be her first metropolitan Saturday runner in the race for country-trained horses.

She has six horses in work at Exeter, south of Bowral, and last had a Sydney runner at a midweek meeting a year ago, so she is looking forward to the trip for professional rather than social reasons.

“I’d like to think he could get to a couple of Highways,” Murray-Leslie said.

“He’s a pretty handy horse although I didn’t expect him to win first-up.”

Although a start in a Highway race has long been on the agenda. Salesman’s win at Goulburn over 1000 metres on June 19 convinced Murray-Leslie to step him up to 1200m.

“He’s always shown a bit of ability and these Highways are are a great concept,” she said.

“He’s up against country horses, class two. That’s where he’s at, he’ll be very competitive,” she said.

Murray-Leslie said although Salesman could be “quirky” during trackwork, he invariably switched on come race day.

“My husband (Ash Goulder) works him but he’s a right gentleman when he races,” she said.

“He’s just got this massive free-rolling action, and he’s adaptable. It won’t matter where he is. On pace, or midfield if they go hard. He just needs to get into a rhythm.”