Ace hoop Glyn Schofield is looking forward to his maiden ride on the Bjorn Baker-trained Windjammer when the in-form colt runs third-up in Saturday’s The Run To The Rose 2013 in Sydney.
Windjammer will be ridden by Glyn Schofield in Saturday's The Run To The Rose. Photo: Steve Hart.
The Bernardini three-year-old is one of 15 exciting entries for this year’s $125,000 Group 3 The Run To The Rose (1200m) at Rosehill Gardens.
Some of the other more notable nominees they could face are the unbeaten Bart & James Cummings-trained Caulfield Guineas fancy Eurozone, Chris Waller’s JJ Atkins runner-up Zoustar and recent San Domenico Stakes winner Va Pensiero.
Like the bulk of their rivals on Saturday, Windjammer is out to prove worthy of a shot at a Group 1 race this spring.
Options include of course the $1 million Group 1 Golden Rose (1400m) back at the track on September 14, or if continuing onto Melbourne the $1 million Group 1 Caulfield Guineas (1600m) on October 12.
Windjammer kicked off their career with Gai Waterhouse for who they had just the won run in November last year.
Transferred to Baker, they were tested at elite level as a juvenile but could only manage to finish a distant ninth to Waterhouse’s filly Overreach in the Group 1 Golden Slipper (1200m), and an even more disappointing 12th when beaten 21 lengths by the Peter Snowden-trained Guelph in the Group 1 ATC Sires Produce Stakes (1400m) in the autumn.
Sent for a spell after that they matured over the break and returned just under four months later to win first-up at Rosehill over 1100m with Hugh Bowman aboard.
Nash Rawiller then rode them second-up when Windjammer crossed under a length away third to Va Pensiero in the Group 3 San Domenico Stakes (1100m) on August 17.
They get the chance to face off against both Va Pensiero as well as the Anthony Cummings-trained San Domenico runner-up Cluster again on the weekend.
It will be the third jockey in as many starts for Windjammer in the Run To The Rose however, Schofield confident they have the makings of a good spring type.
“Windjammer looks a nice horse,” Schofield told the Courier Mail.
In the latest Caulfield Guineas betting markets they are a $41 outsider having failed to show their ability to stretch to the mile as yet.
They’re much shorter in the futures Golden Rose odds however paying $21.
To back Windjammer either on Saturday or in one of the upcoming Group 1’s for value head over to bookmaker.com.au and bet online with confidence knowing they are 100 percent Australian owned and operated.
