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Wild Ruler will face a stern test of his sprint credentials when he tackles Nature Strip.
A blueprint that delivered Redzel back-to-back victories in The Everest has been strategically utilised by his former trainers as they prepare to launch the spring campaign of their latest sprinting talent.
The Peter and Paul Snowden-trained Wild Ruler will go head-to-head with benchmark speedster Nature Strip in the Concorde Stakes (1000m) at Randwick on Saturday, a race that launched both of Redzel's Everest campaigns.
But that isn't the only commonality in their programs.
Redzel won the Doomben 10,000 in 2017 before going on to claim The Everest in the spring, then finished fourth in the Brisbane feature prior to capturing his second Everest a year later.
Wild Ruler likewise contested this year's Doomben 10,000 but galloped on himself in the run, stripping his heel and inflicting a bad quarter crack before finishing midfield.
Co-trainer Peter Snowden said it was no fluke they had replicated Redzel's programs, even though The Everest is not firmly on Wild Ruler's agenda.
"It's a good formula. They're the right races to run in and normally if you're competitive in them, they're good form races that hold up," Snowden said.
The Manikato Stakes is the current aim for Wild Ruler but if he can serve it up to equal Everest favourite Nature Strip on Saturday, he will be hard for slot holders to ignore.
The four-year-old is outstanding fresh, winning three of his four first-up runs and Snowden says he has returned to work a fully mature horse.
"The best part about him is he's a lot more relaxed," Snowden said.
"He's not pulling and he's going through whatever gear you want him to go through, whereas he'd had a tendency to want to go hard early.
"A lot of things are going right for him now so this should be his time to shine."
Wild Ruler was also entered for Saturday's McEwen Stakes at Moonee Valley but a forecast for heavy rain in Melbourne swayed the Snowdens to stay in Sydney.
He is a $51 chance for The Everest and a $4.20 second pick at Randwick, with Nature Strip the reigning $1.55 fancy.
Chris Waller is banking on a case of third time lucky with Nature Strip, who has been beaten as favourite in the Concorde Stakes for the past two years.
He was fourth to Redzel in 2019 and was knocked off by Gytrash as an odds-on elect 12 months ago.
