There will be an air of serendipity if Victorian raider Daggers can upstage Godolphin’s two high-profile colts, Broadsiding and Traffic Warden, to win the $1 million Golden Rose at Rosehill.
By I Am Invincible, Daggers is out of Omei Sword, who finished runner-up to Godolphin’s Astern in the 2016 renewal of the Group 1 race.
The global powerhouse again looks to hold the aces in Saturday’s Golden Rose (1400m) with its two runners, champion two-year-old Broadsiding, who tackles the race first-up, and The Run To The Rose victor Traffic Warden.
With a forecast for up to 35mm of rain in Sydney on Thursday, trainers Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young are still weighing up whether to bring Daggers north or keep him closer to home for either the Stutt Stakes (1600m) at Moonee Valley on Friday night or Sandown a day later.
If he does make the interstate trek, they are optimistic he will acquit himself well following a sharp piece of trackwork in the Sydney direction over the weekend.
“He actually worked up with (stablemate) Craig on Saturday morning and worked up very well,” Young said.
“They went the reverse way, just because some are going to Sydney.
“They were on the grass, and he pulled up really nicely.”
Daggers, who will wear blinkers for the first time in the Golden Rose, led to win his first two starts in Augus, before camping on the back of the speed when third in the Listed Exford Plate (1400m) at Flemington last start on a soft 7 track.
Young wasn’t certain he was suited by the genuinely rain-affected ground, a factor likely to influence where he runs this weekend.
“Omei Sword had run second on a heavy eight before, so we thought he might get through it, but those leaders skipped away, and it was just a bit hard,” she said.
A wet Rosehill track won’t worry Broadsiding, who is a Group 1 winner of the Champagne Stakes (1600m) on heavy ground, while Traffic Warden has also been placed at the highest level in similar conditions.
Daggers is one of two interstate raiders in Saturday’s Golden Rose, along with the Anthony and Sam Freedman-trained Tropicus.
Victorian-trained horses had a field day during the Sydney autumn carnival with the likes of Chain Of Lightning (T J Smith Stakes), Magic Time (All Aged Stakes), Autumn Angel (Oaks), Circles Of Fire (Sydney Cup) and Pride Of Jenni (Queen Elizabeth Stakes) all plundering majors.