Darley confident Zoustar will have a fight on his hands in Coolmore Stud Stakes

THE hype around hotpot Zoustar is not scaring off Darley, as Sidestep tries to make up for a nightmarish Sydney carnival in the Coolmore Stud Stakes.

Trainer Peter Snowden rates Sidestep his best colt and does not believe he has too much to make up to cause an upset.

THE hype around hotpot Zoustar is not scaring off Darley, as Sidestep tries to make up for a nightmarish Sydney carnival in Saturday's Coolmore Stud Stakes.

Peter Snowden and Darley have swept all before them in the three-year-old Classics to date and the stable is looking forward to unleashing their number one sprint seed on the Melbourne Carnival in this weekend's Group 1 1200m dash.

In the wake of Chris Waller's extraordinarily confident spruik for Zoustar on Tuesday, bookmakers made him $1.80 for the Coolmore and he was the best-backed runner in early trading.

Darley rate Sidestep their best colt and do not believe he has too much to make up to cause an upset.

Sidestep ran in the same jumpout as Zoustar last Friday, finishing clearly ahead of him when a narrow second to stablemate Thump.

"He's going really well. He's our best three-year-old sprinting colt,'' Darley racing manager Jason Walsh said. "He certainly has the ability to win this race.''

Sidestep was left as the stable's lone Coolmore runner with Safeguard being saved for another day.

Golden Rose winner Zoustar might encounter a worthy adversary in Saturday's Coolmore Stud Stakes.

Sidestep has proved well named, having to avoid carnage on several occasions recently.

The Exceed And Excel colt was a certainty beaten first up behind Va Pensiero, then was never out of trouble in the Run to the Rose at Rosehill.

The Golden Rose produced more interference, but he was able to pick up and run fourth.

"We had to abort plans in Sydney,'' Walsh said. "He ran a great fourth in the Golden Rose in which things still didn't go his way.

"He ran second in a Golden Slipper which must have him right in the mix for this race.''

Sidestep was posted at $11 with TattsBet yesterday, putting him on the second line of betting alongside last week's beaten Moonee Valley favourite Not Listenin'tome.

Queensland filly Missy Longstocking is a $12 chance after $17 was taken in some places yesterday.