Tenley secures Golden Slipper ticket with impressive win in Reisling Stakes

Within hours of Tassort being ruled out of the Golden Slipper, stablemates Tenley and Exhilarates stepped up with a one-two finish at Royal Randwick.

Unbeaten filly Tenley finished fast to defeat Exhilarates in the Group 2 $300,000 Reisling Stakes (1200m) in race record time of 1m 8.34s.

This is the fastest time a two-year-old has ever run over the Randwick 1200m and an emphatic statement before the $3.5 million Longines Golden Slipper (1200m) at Rosehill Gardens on March 23.

Tenley’s win and the impressive effort of runner-up Exhilarates gave trainer James Cummings reason to smile after he was forced to spell his boom colt and long-time Golden Slipper favourite Tassort with a hoof injury after trackwork on Saturday morning.

“I’ve got 200 horses in great shape and only one who has to go to the paddock,’’ Cummings said.

Tenley ($3.50 favourite) is on track to become the first grey to win the Golden Slipper since Bounding Away in 1986 when she finished powerfully to win by 1½ lengths from Exhilarates ($4.40) with Vincere Volare ($7) a half-length away third.

The Reisling Stakes is one of the more reliable Golden Slipper guides with Estijaab (2018) and Overreach (2013) completing the double in recent years, while She Will Reign (2017) and Mossfun (2014) both came off second placings in the first leg to win the Slipper.

“That’s worked out pretty well,’’ Cummings said after the Godolphin stable quinella. “Tenley has improved out of sight like you would not believe. She is a pretty special filly.’’

James McDonald, rider of Tenley, was taken by the filly’s impressive win.

“She’s a ripper,’’ he said. “She travelled good and got a lovely cart into the race then she just goes bang. She’s got a great constitution, she absorbs pressure, got a great turn of foot and she sustains a really good gallop. She ticks a lot of boxes.”

Cummings maintains Magic Millions winner Exhilarates will take improvement into the Golden Slipper in two weeks.

“Exhilarates was very, very good,’’ the trainer said. “She had not raced since January 12 and this race will be perfect for her going to the Golden Slipper.

“Hopefully she has a touch of the Capitalist about her two weeks out from the Slipper and is ready to bounce back to her very best.’’

Exhilarates’s rider Kerrin McEvoy is also keeping the faith ahead of the world’s richest juvenile race.

“She ran well, she’s obviously had the let up since last run, she’ll improve with that and be cherry ripe for Slipper day,’’ he said.

YES YES YES RISES TO TOP
Yes Yes Yes joined Tenley as favourite for the Golden Slipper after a dynamic last-to-first swoop at Royal Randwick.

With Tassort out of the Golden Slipper due to a hoof injury, Yes Yes Yes was elevated to the top of Golden Slipper betting at $6 after his win in the Group 2 $300,000 Todman Stakes (1200m).

Tenley is alongside Yes Yes Yes after her Reisling Stakes win in slightly faster time.

But champion trainer Chris Waller has designs on his first win in the Golden Slipper after Yes Yes Yes made his stable debut with his impressive Todman Stakes win.

Yes Yes Yes was previously prepared by disgraced trainer Darren Weir before being transferred to the Waller stable.

Waller described Yes Yes Yes as a “ready-made two-year-old’’ after the colt improved his record to three wins in succession from four starts.

“I don’t have to make him run faster,’’ Waller said. “He’s put on weight since which is a pretty good sign. I think he’ll come through the race pretty well the way the race was run.’’

Yes Yes Yes ($4.40) ran down game frontrunner Bellevue Hill ($4.40) with Dubious ($7.50) three-quarters of a length away third. The winner ran the 1200m in a race record 1m 8.40s, just outside Tenley’s 1m 8.34s in the Reisling.

Yes Yes Yes had trialled in blinkers for Waller but raced without them in the Todman Stakes.

Waller hasn’t ruled out putting blinkers on Yes Yes Yes for the Golden Slipper.

“We didn’t think he needed to race in them today,’’ Waller said.

“He was a bit aggressive in them. We will keep them in mind should we choose to put them on leading into the Slipper but I doubt we need it based on today’s performance.”

Silver Slipper winner Time To Reign ($2.90 favourite) looked to have every chance before finishing a disappointing sixth that left trainer Gary Portelli and jockey Jason Collett searching for excuses.

“We were pretty confident he would run right up to his best today and we are as stunned as everyone at the moment,’’ Portelli said. “Maybe he needs the sting out of the ground, that’s all I can put it down to. The faster acceleration on these tracks might not be his go.

“The first 400m today, knowing the hose, he was racing too fiercely within himself. It was a weird run. He didn’t stop, he didn’t give up.

“In the back of our minds we have been thinking he might be a blinker horse and that would be something we could look at for the Slipper. He’s a better horse than that.’’

Collett also Time To Reign began well then “switched off but didn’t switch back on.’’

“The firmer track, he seemed to feel fine on it but just didn’t have the turn foot when they sprinted,” Collett said.