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Waterhouse/Bott pair to push Golden Slipper claims this Saturday.
Tulloch Lodge's juggling act to get horses into this year's Golden Slipper lifts a cog this weekend when it will have runners in feature two-year-old races in both Melbourne and Sydney.
Gai waterhouse and Adrian Bott will chase Group 1 success with Lady Of Camelot in the $2 million Blue Diamond Stakes at Caulfield, while two of their more talented colts will run at Rosehill.
Straight Charge and Espionage will both run in the $300,000 Group 2 Silver Slipper Stakes (1100m).
They are among a powerful group of two-year-olds for the stable, which has the raging favourite for the Golden Slipper in Storm Boy but boast a formidable support cast for the $5m event at Rosehill on March 23, including Shangri La Express, Prost and Fully Lit.
"It is hard to keep them apart,'' Bott said.
"They are all on the verge of qualifying.
"We are trying to get them peaking on Golden Slipper Day."
Espionage will be having his first start since he narrowly defeated Straight Charge in the Group 3 Breeders' Plate (1000m) on September 30.
The son of Zoustar has had two trials in preparation for his return, including victory in a 900m workout at Rosehill on February 5.
Straight Charge won brilliantly at Randwick on December 23 but had an issue that kept him out of the Magic Millions 2YO Classic and the Written By colt has returned to the trials and last Monday was a dashing winner of an 812m trial at Warwick Farm.
Espionage and Straight Charge likely to progress to the Group 2 Todman Stakes (1200m) on March 9, where they will clash with stablemate Shangri La Express, who will take improvement from last Saturday's second placing to Switzerland in the 1100m Pierro Plate.
"The race fitness of the winner told late," Bott said.
"The race panned out like we thought and expect it to. Our colt fought on well and it took a bit for the winner to get to him and when he did he couldn't shake him off easily.
"I do think he is back in really good order.
"He was always going to be most vulnerable today. We are not at all concerned by going down narrowly."
