Silent Explorer to make presence felt

Silent Explorer (l) will try to go one better at Randwick than when beaten by stablemate Toulouse.

Beaten by his stablemate Toulouse last time out, Silent Explorer gets his chance to shine on a quick back-up at Randwick.

The David Payne-trained Silent Explorer finished 1-1/2 lengths behind Toulouse over 1400 metres last week and comes back to 1200m in Saturday’s 2YO Handicap.

Both juveniles are by Lope De Vega, the 2010 French Derby winner who shuttled to Australia for four seasons and whose progeny includes Group One winners Vega Magic and Santa Ana Lane.

While Payne is hoping Toulouse can develop into a Derby prospect like his sire, he believes Silent Explorer will be more effective over shorter distances.

“Toulouse is out of a Carnegie mare so I expect him to get over ground while Silent Explorer is out of a Flying Spur mare so there is more speed there,” Payne said.

“He came through his last race well and the wet track at Randwick will suit him.

“He is rock-hard fit because he only raced last week an I expect him to run a nice race.”

Silent Explorer was an $8.50 chance on race eve with the Gary Portelli-trained Dio D’Oro the $4.40 favourite to add to his 1000m-win at Randwick two weeks ago on a similar heavy track.

Payne has reconfigured his team at Rosehill with Victoria Derby winner Ace High and promising staying filly All Too Soon to be his only four-year-olds in the new season.

“I’ve got mostly young horses,” he said.

“They are soon to be two and three-year-olds and just the couple of four-year-olds.”

Ace High and All Too Soon are both back in the Rosehill stable with the major Cups on Ace High’s agenda.

All Too Soon, who was found to be lame after her Vinery Stud Stakes failure, will be taken along race by race.

“She has a hock problem which is a conformation issue rather than an injury,” Payne said.

“It could flare up again and there’s really not much that can be done so it will be race by race,”