Redzel ready for TJ Smith Stakes showdown

Friday 3 April 2020, 5:49pm

He has won two Everests, two Group One races and more than $16 million.

On Saturday veteran sprinter Redzel will try to repel a number of younger star sprinters when he chases another memorable Randwick victory in the Group One TJ Smith Stakes (1200m) at the venue of his two Everest triumphs.

Along with defending champion Santa Ana Lane and quality mare In Her Time, Redzel is one of three seven-year-olds in the field of 13.

Among their rivals will be brilliant but enigmatic five-year-old Nature Strip and four three-year-olds including Newmarket Handicap-winning colt Bivouac and dual Group One-winning filly Loving Gaby.

Redzel's most recent Group One success was during the 2017 spring in the Darley Classic at Flemington.

That came after the first of his two wins in The Everest which does not have black-type status.

Redzel's 2019 spring campaign netted a Group Two win in the Concorde Stakes (1000m) at Randwick while his current preparation has yielded runner-up finishes in the Group One Lightning Stakes (1000m) in Melbourne and Challenge Stakes (1000m) at Randwick.

Co-trainer Peter Snowden knows Redzel faces a challenge in the $1.25 million weight-for-age TJ Smith.

He finished second in 2018 and was unplaced last year, but Snowden is far from discounting his stable stalwart.

"He is going well," Snowden, who trains in partnership with his son Paul, said.

"He's meeting a star-studded field. They're all youngsters but his two runs this time in have both been solid.

"He's done well since his last start and he trialled well last Friday.

"He's in good order and he looks well.

"I know it's an ask for him but he doesn't know that.

"He's still wanting to race and he's racing well so we'll go with him.

"A soft track won't worry him at all. There's a little bit of speed that will go with him but he'll get his chance."

– 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 »