Sheidel on target for G1 William Reid

Sheidel already has an Oakleigh Plate win this campaign and her co-trainer Tom Dabernig believes she is in the right form to challenge for another Group One victory in the William Reid Stakes.

“She seems to be absolutely flying,” Dabernig said.

Sheidel ran in the Oakleigh Plate first-up at Caulfield last month and snared her first elite-level win, leading under champion rider Joao Moreira and holding off a challenge from stablemate Faatinah.

The mare then went to the Newmarket Handicap down the Flemington 1200m straight and, after taking a trail behind the leader Star Turn, Sheidel finished fourth in the race won in dominant fashion by stablemate Redkirk Warrior.

Sheidel gets another crack at a Group One win in Friday night’s William Reid (1200m) at Moonee Valley and is on the second line of betting at $4.80 behind Star Turn who narrowly beat her home last start.

Dabernig felt Damien Oliver restrained the mare too much early in the Newmarket which he thought cost her a closer finish.

“If he would have let her flow I reckon she would have run a place for sure. She probably would have finished second,” he said.

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“I think she’s going really well.

“She has had a couple of goes at Moonee Valley which haven’t been her best efforts but I think she was poorly ridden so I’m not sure it was entirely the Valley.”

The former West Australian mare finished third in a 955m handicap in her first start for Lindsay Park at the corresponding Moonee Valley meeting last year while her only other start at the track was a fourth in the Group Two McEwen Stakes (1000m) in September last year.

The five-year-old, to be ridden by Blake Shinn, has barrier nine in the field which has been reduced to 12 after the scratching of Kuro.

“I think she’ll just put herself on the speed, hopefully sit outside the leader and be hard to beat,” Dabernig said.

“She’s one of those horses that can sit on the pace and maintain a good strong gallop. She can get some of the horses who need to build into their races under pressure and that’s definitely her advantage.

“She would want to begin well, but if she jumps cleanly I think she’ll be in it for a long way and be hard to get past.”