Melbourne trainer Colin Scott insists nothing in the autumn is beyond Speediness as the accomplished sprinter-miler starts his most ambitious campaign yet in a star-studded Expressway Stakes at Randwick on Saturday.
Speediness adds interstate strength to a weight-for-age race that heralds an unofficial start to the Sydney autumn carnival with star turns Boban, Rain Affair and Appearance also set to resume.
And Scott says Speediness, a brilliant return winner of the Bobbie Lewis Quality at Flemington in the spring, won’t be out of his depth.
“He’s got a very, very good first-up record really apart from the time that he hasn’t come up. When he won the Bobbie Lewis Quality he beat a very good group of gallopers including Rebel Dane,” Scott said.
“I expect him to run well in a high-quality race with potentially some of the best horses in the country and if he can finish within two or three lengths of them he’s going to be right there for the rest of the autumn.”
Speediness is in Sydney for a weight-for-age program leading into the $3 million Doncaster Mile, the richest race on the opening day of The Championships at Randwick on April 12.
“With a little bit of luck in his races, I think he is up with the best horses in Australia,” Scott said.
Speediness was sent to Sydney on Saturday after running in a Sandown barrier trial 24 hours earlier and he won’t be asked to do too much in a Randwick 800-metre gallop on Thursday morning.
Bookmakers rate Speediness a top-three Expressway chance with the James McDonald mount a $6.50 pick behind the favourite Boban ($2.90) in first markets.
Splitting the pair is Rain Affair ($4), Joe Pride’s brilliant sprinter who looks the leader despite drawing gate nine in the 11-horse field.
Boban, coming off a sequence of five wins in the spring that included Epsom Handicap and Emirates Stakes victories, has drawn the rails with Nash Rawiller riding the impressive four-year-old for the first time since a Warwick Farm win in April last year.
Speediness has also drawn towards the outside in barrier seven.
