The Barrister to lay down the law again

Sunday 12 April 2015, 4:31pm

As the career of Bel Sprinter nears an end, his trainer Jason Warren is looking to The Barrister to step up to the Group One plate.

The two-year-old won the Listed Fernhill Handicap at Randwick on Saturday to stake his claims for the Champagne Stakes.

Warren will monitor him over the next couple of days to ensure he is at his peak for the seven-day back-up.

The prospect of rain later in the week is also an enticement with both The Barrister's wins coming on wet tracks.

"Bel Sprinter is not far off retirement," Warren said.

"Hopefully this colt can step up. All going well, we will have a throw at the big stumps."

The Champagne Stakes (1600m) is last leg of Sydney's triple crown with two-year-olds stepping up in distance from the Golden Slipper (1200m) to the Sires' Produce (1400m).

Slipper winner Vancouver is in the spelling paddock while the first and third in the Sires' - Pride Of Dubai and Rageese - will also miss the Champagne.

The Peter Moody-trained Pasadena Girl, fourth in the Sires', will take her place.

The last horse to complete the Fernhill/Champagne double was Dracula in 1998.

Bel Sprinter, the winner of the 2013 Galaxy, has been Warren's headline horse.

After the Galaxy, he ran third in the TJ Smith Stakes won by Black Caviar and second in the KrisFlyer International in Singapore behind Hong Kong's Lucky Nine.

He crossed the line locked with Miracles Of Life in a Group Two sprint at Caulfield in the spring but has failed to show that form in four starts since.

At his most recent outing, Bel Sprinter never recovered from a slow start and beat just one runner home in the William Reid Stakes won by Lucky Hussler.

The Listed Anniversary Vase (1400m) on Saturday could well be Bel Sprinter's farewell.

The Barrister gave his sire Star Witness his inaugural stakes winner with his Fernhill win and elevated him to second behind Beneteau on the first season sires table.

– AAP

Latest News

Prime Thoroughbreds - We have a Host of Leaders in our Team

Tuesday, 29 June 2021

Prime Thor­ough­bred’s cur­rent rac­ing team is putt­ing to­gether quite a re­cord. We have 22 hors­es that have raced in our team at pre­sent. Six­teen of th­ese are win­n­ers in­clud­ing the Stakes win­n­ing trio Ru­bisa­ki, Fituese and Xtreme­time with Miss Di­vine Em and Miss In Charge run­n­ing 4th in Stakes races. This sees a stakes win­n­er to win­n­er ra­tio of 18.75% with a stake’s per­formed to win­n­er ra­tio of 31.25%. Th­ese are ex­cep­tio­n­al fig­ures.   More »

Freedmans land maiden Group One win

Saturday, 27 February 2021

Un­der-rat­ed fil­ly For­bid­den Love has emerged as an au­tumn car­ni­val smokey with a bril­liant per­for­mance to win the Sur­round Stakes at Rand­wick.  More »

Capriccio completes Damian Lane treble

Saturday, 27 February 2021

In a big day for coun­try-trained hors­es, War­r­nam­bool fil­ly Capric­cio has tak­en out the In­glis Dash for Daniel Bow­man.  More »

More news headlines »