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John O’Shea has a strong hand in this weekend’s Ingham.
Most trainers would be content to have one runner in a Group 2 $2 million race, but Randwick-based conditioner John O'Shea will saddle up four in this weekend's The Ingham on his home surface.
O'Shea will have all bases covered on Saturday from his old grey beard Berbidek to the lightly-raced Diamil, and everything in between.
Perhaps the stables best chance is their five-year-old gelding Diamil, who looked good winning the Filante two back before just missing the placings in the $2 million Five Diamonds last time out.
Stable representative Tom Charlton explained that he looks the galloper out of the four that has the most upside.
"He's probably the one that's the most unexposed of the crew," Charlton said.
"The others have done a lot of damage over the last couple of years in a sense that their rating is high.
"This horse gets in at a lovely weight of 54.5kg and he's come off a really good run in the Five Diamonds where the form has been franked throughout the race.
"We loved his trial last week, gets Tommy Berry on and I think he's a live contender."
Six-year-old gelding Kirwan's Lane has been an honest conveyance for the stable winning ten races and earning over $660,000 in the process, with Charlton believing he's been a victim of his own success. The Charm Spirit progeny will carry 57kg in the feature event.
"He is as consistent as ever," Charlton said.
"He's much higher in the weights this year as he's done a lot of winning, so he's been penalised accordingly which makes life a bit harder for him.
"But he should have conditions to suit on Saturday and hopefully he will put in a bold run."
Nine-year-old gelding Berbidek will come into the race second-up, after being beaten less then four lengths when resuming. The son of Irish stallion Dark Angel has more than paid his way picking up over $580,000 in prize money throughout the career.
"We were happy with his run in The Gong first-up," Charlton said.
"He got back and met a bit of a troubled passage, but we thought his effort was good.
"He's not quite there in the coat yet, but we think he will probably run over the odds and he might be working towards the Summer Cup if this race comes a bit quick for him."
Rounding out the quartet, Lion's Roar will be looking to return to form after a couple of torrid runs at his first two efforts back from a lengthy spell. The Contributer progeny posted a victory over the famous Randwick mile when he took out the Group 1 Randwick Guineas as a three-year-old.
"First-up he got left three-wide fresh and overrated in the middle sections. He was entitled to finish where he did after such a long lay-off," Charlton said.
"We were back to the drawing board second-up and just wanted to make sure he had a positive performance which we were happy with in difficult circumstances.
"He gets back to a course and distance that he loves, and he might be another one that can hopefully run well at big odds and should continue to improve with more racing."
