‘You’d probably have to go back as far as Danehill for a stallion who’s got out of the blocks as well as Wootton Bassett has’

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The deserved hype around Coolmore shuttler Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj) has focused on his Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) favourite Wodeton for the past four weeks, but the colt who set the ball rolling is poised to serve a reminder of his class at Randwick on Saturday.

Pallaton started the trickle that became a torrent when he became Wootton Bassett’s first Australian winner in claiming a 1000-metre set-weights two-year-old event at Randwick on December 21 on debut.

He became the Slipper favourite, until Waller-Coolmore colt Wodeton took a scintillating bow at Rosehill on January 18, shooting to a 3.9-length win and to the top of betting for the world’s richest two-year-old race, in a market currently with three Wootton Bassetts in the top seven.

Pallaton is still there, an $11 equal second-elect behind the $3.20 Wodeton, and trainer Michael Freedman speaks with confidence about the likelihood of him shortening after Saturday, perhaps depending on forecast rain worsening the track from its Soft 5 rating on Friday.

In a mouth-watering edition of the Pierro Plate (1100m) which bizarrely – when “black type” is being doled out like lollies at a kids’ party – has no stakes grading, Pallaton was a $2.30 favourite on Friday night.

Wyong-trained battler’s favourite Shaggy (Sandbar) sat next at $5 as he comes to town trying to win his third race from as many starts, with Waller-Coolmore’s United States (Snitzel) $5.50 after a Randwick debut second on January 25.

Gerald Ryan and Sterling Alexiou’s debutant filly Skyhook (Written Tycoon) was at $7 after a Rosehill barrier trial win, Godolphin’s debut Randwick winner Comedy (Snitzel) was $9.50, and at $10 was the Annabel Neasham and Rob Archibald-trained Hillier (Zoustar), who finished well for second in the Canonbury Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m) at his first start.

Pallaton has given Freedman high hopes as he returns from an eight-week let-up for a campaign that will hopefully see him take in the Todman Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) on March 8 before the Slipper a fortnight later.

Prior to his debut victory, Freedman worked the colt with an older horse and Pallaton emerged with flying colours according to Tommy Berry, who rode him in his win four days later. Berry is recovering from injury and is replaced in the Pierro Plate by Zac Lloyd, but that appears the only difference for Pallaton.

“He’s holding good form. He’s coming up similarly to how he was two months ago,” Freedman told ANZ Bloodstock News of Pallaton, who was third in a tick-over trial at Rosehill on February 3 behind race-winning Slipper fancies North England (Farnan) and Bel Merci (Extreme Choice).

“He’s a pretty straightforward little horse and he seems good to me. He’s had a good couple of weeks since that trial, and I was happy with how he worked on Tuesday.

“A wet track could be a bit of a factor, but most of these two-year-olds will be in the same boat: we’ll see what it’s like when we get there,” Freedman added, noting Pallaton had at least won a Kensington trial on a Soft 6.

Freedman was handed Pallaton to train by owner-breeder Anthony Gow-Gates, who’d also given him the six-time winning half-brother Yiska (Smart Missile) when previous trainer Mark Newnham moved to Hong Kong. The pair’s dam Anevay (Exceed And Excel) won Flemington’s Talindert Stakes (Listed, 1100m) in 2011.

Yiska had won his first three at the Sunshine Coast and Doomben (twice) for Freedman’s big brother Lee. He’s now won six of 15 and three of his past four for Freedman, including first-up at Randwick last start on January 25. He’s entered in Saturday’s 1300-metre Benchmark 88, and Freedman thinks he could be handy. But perhaps not in Pallaton’s class.

The imposing, dark-coloured colt’s intended path to the Slipper will be the same as that taken when Freedman co-trained Stay Inside (Extreme Choice) with brother Richard to lift Rosehill’s feature in 2021.

Freedman has since shown himself a master juvenile conditioner since branching out on his own, harking back to the family’s glory years when the Freedman brothers, with Lee at the helm, won four–straight Slippers starting with Bint Marscay (Marscay) in 1993.

The next three were by breed-shaping stallion Danehill (Danzig), in Danzero, Flying Spur and Merlene. Freedman, among others, thinks back to the heady days of the nine-time champion sire Danehill when assessing the initial impact of Wootton Bassett, whose southern first season offerings are sweeping most things before him.

“Wootton Bassett has obviously had a massive start in this country, though he’d shown what he was capable of in Europe,” Freedman said.

“When you’ve got three or four horses in the top six or eight in the market for a Slipper in your first season, it’s a pretty rare thing.

“You’d probably have to go back as far as Danehill for a stallion who’s got out of the blocks as well as Wootton Bassett has.”

Freedman sees other similarities among his five two-year-olds by Wootton Bassett to the stock he handled by Danehill.

“In terms of temperament, they do seem to be very sensible horses and relatively straightforward to train. Going back to the 90s, when he had a lot of Danehills, they had the same sort of temperament,” said Freedman.

The trainer said it was interesting that two British shuttlers were having such an impact on the Australian two-year-old scene, the other being Too Darn Hot (Dubawi).

“Wootton Bassett in particular has had a good run with his young horses in Europe, which often doesn’t translate out here, but it would appear that for whatever reason he’s nicking well and working well with our broodmares,” he said.

As for how his main Wootton Bassett lines up against Waller’s, Freedman said it was too early to tell.

“Pallaton and Wodeton are coming through very different formlines,” he said. “If it gets that far, we’d have to wait until they meet in a Todman or something to line them up. I can only go by what my horse is doing at present.

“He’s meeting a stronger field [in the Pierro] than he beat first-up, so it’ll be interesting to see if he can take the next step.

“There’s a lot of hype about United States, who was impressive getting beaten the other day. Comedy won his first start, so that adds depth to it.

“And there’s a horse coming down from the country who’s done very well.”

That horse is called Shaggy and is prepared by knockabout trainer Allan Kehoe at Wyong. The horse was gelded young – not because he was growing too big, but because of other habits that led to his name.

“He’s just a little fella, but he just wanted to shag everything,” Kehoe said. “He was like a kid in a candy store whenever there was a filly around. We just called him Shagger, and then his owners asked if we had any name ideas, so that’s how Shaggy came about.”

That date with the scalpel appears to have been the making of the racehorse, given a debut 5.7–length win at Coffs Harbour over 800 metres on a Soft 6 on January 12, followed by a 2.5–length victory at the Sunshine Coast on January 25, both when leading.

Bred by Angus Lamont at Wagga’s Kooringal Stud, Shaggy was entered for the 2024 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale but was withdrawn and given to Kehoe, who’d trained his half-siblings Moonlight Grace (Scissor Kick) and I Want This (Prized Icon).

Moonlight Grace has won a Warwick Farm maiden and a metro Midway at Hawkesbury, but Shaggy is well on his way to outstripping her.

“We pretty much knew straight away he was good,” Kehoe told ANZ. “We broke him in, and we knew he’d go as a two-year-old. He just wanted to please you all the time.”

Shaggy was also entered for Sydney’s first official two-year-old trials at Kensington but Kehoe scratched him that morning, preferring his journeyman’s trail.

“We wanted an easy kill and that race at Coffs was the only one about,” he said. “The trip away was going to do him good, and same for going to the Sunshine Coast.

“That was a gutsy win at the Sunshine Coast. I told his jockey James Orman he didn’t have to lead, but he did, and afterwards he said he’d ridden older horses who’d had similar runs to him, and they’d crumble under the pressure. He said Shaggy just absorbed pressure that day and was in a class of his own and had more up his sleeve.

“I think he’ll be thereabouts [in the Pierro]. He’s in better company, so he’s got to turn up.”

It’ll be Sydney or the bush, the Slipper or the Boot, for Shaggy after today, with Kehoe saying his performance will decide a push towards the $5 million Rosehill highlight or the $200,000 Wellington Boot (1100m) eight days later.

“We’ll find out how good he is tomorrow [Saturday], and then whether we’ll head to the Slipper or the Wellington Boot,” Kehoe said.

“He’ll get the 1100 metres easily. He’s doing everything in neutral at the moment. He’s not running through the bridle or over-racing, he’s very kind to the jocks. I reckon he’ll run a strong 1200 metres, too.”

Shaggy is the only runner so far for Kooringal’s nine-year-old Danehill-line stallion Sandbar (Snitzel, by Redoute’s Choice, by Danehill).

A dual Listed winner – and eighth in the 2018 Slipper – in a 21-start career for Brad Widdup, Sandbar had 41 live foals from his first crop, and last spring covered 41 mares in his fourth season, at $8,800 (inc GST).

Kooringal will be hoping for a sparkling piece of advertising when little Shaggy takes on the big time at Randwick today.