Will Clarken and Niki O’Shea unleash big guns for Adelaide trainers’ premiership assault at Morphettville

Group 1 placegetter Kuroyanagi heads a strong team Will Clarken and Niki O’Shea will send to Morphettville as the Adelaide trainers’ premiership goes down to the wire.

Kuroyanagi wins impressively on debut at Gawler in January. Picture: Makoto Kaneko

With the Adelaide trainers’ premiership delicately poised, Will Clarken and Niki O’Shea are playing their best hand at Morphettville on Saturday.

Clarken and O’Shea are tied atop the metro premiership with Richard and Chantelle Jolly (43 wins) as the season culminates on Saturday, and it’s a title tug of war that may go down to the final race.

Clarken and O’Shea, who are chasing a maiden premiership, have an eye-catching arsenal of runners, headlined by Group 1 placegetter Kuroyanagi, with star hoop Jamie Kah booked to ride in the Listed Lightning Stakes (1050m).

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The stable also welcomes back Group 3 winner Boognish and smart mare Second To Nun, while another Group 3 winner, Extremely Lucky, returns from a competitive racing stint in Melbourne – all three will line-up in a Handicap over 1100m.

Exciting 2YO Kuroyanagi has the stable musing on just how good she could be, the talented daughter of Written Tycoon was last seen finishing third behind Hayasugi in the Group 1 Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m) in February, and returned more imposing in stature following a spell.

“We’re happy with her. She’s growing and developing all the time.” O’Shea said.

“She is definitely a stronger, bigger horse now, she’s not a giant, but she’s definitely a lot stronger than she was last time.”

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The filly trialled at Balaklava on July 11, alongside stablemates Second To Nun and Extremely Lucky.

“She got a bit tired in that trial, but she hasn’t done anything wrong for us – she looks very exciting,” he said.

Another trip to Melbourne looks on the cards for the filly, but O’Shea is still learning what her ideal distance is.

“I think she’s going to go to Melbourne, but I don’t know what the plan is, we’re still not sure what her trip is going to be,” he said.

“With her action being so big, you could see her heading down a Guineas path, but she might not want that far.”

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The stable’s form galloper is four-year-old Favourite Child, who has notched four wins in a row.

The mare arrived from the Ciaron Maher stable in April, and is a short-priced favourite for BM82 over 1600m on Saturday.

“I’m delighted with her. We weren’t expecting her to do great things but she’s just improved and improved and has her confidence up,” he said.

“She would gallop through a brick wall at the minute, she’s a strong, tough little mare and you would think she would be hard to beat again.”

Will Clarken (left) and Niki O'Shea (right) after chasing their first Adelaide trainers premiership. Picture: X

Improving filly Hajra makes up a two-pronged attack alongside Kuroyanagi in the Lightning, and has won three of her past four starts including a dominant three-length win at Murray Bridge last-start.

“She was brilliant the other day, if she ran like that again you would think she would run all right, she hasn’t missed a beat,” O’Shea said.

“I think she might’ve been a bit of a weak filly (early) and has come into herself now at the right time.”

Clarken and O’Shea have 10 runners on Saturday, nine are at single-digit odds with TAB and four are currently favourite: Sachem ($2.10), Favourite Child ($1.55), Boognish ($3.80) and Kuroyanagi ($2.80).

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The Jolly stable, chasing a premiership three-peat, has accepted with 11 runners.

Hard Prince ($2.70) and Kalasec ($4.60) are favourites with TAB.

Kah, who notched two Group 1 wins in her home state of South Australia in May, is booked to ride Sachem, Boognish and Kuroyanagi for Clarken and O’Shea.

“It’ll be interesting. We can’t do much about it (the premiership) at this stage, they seem to have a lot of runners and so do we,” O’Shea said.

“At least we’ve got a few horses that are going well so it’s gives us a chance.

“They’ve got some nice horses running as well, it will definitely be interesting.”

Originally published as Will Clarken and Niki O’Shea unleash big guns for Adelaide trainers’ premiership assault at Morphettville