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By Ray Hickson

Trainer Matthew Dunn isn’t backing away from the challenge ahead of promising two-year-old Emperor at Randwick on Saturday as he’s convinced the colt could develop into a headline act for his stable.

Trainer Mathew Dunn (Pic: Grant Guy)

Granted the Warwick Farm trainer wouldn’t have preferred Emperor to jump from gate 13 on a likely rain affected track first-up in the Heineken 3 Handicap (1000m) but with a $2 million target two weeks away Dunn is quietly confident he can rise to the occasion.

Emperor also drew poorly when he ran third behind Sejardan on debut in the Group 3 Breeders’ Plate, the runner-up Zambezi River is among his rivals again this weekend.

“He was probably the victim of a bad gate at his first start,’’ Dunn said.

“That horse is one of the benchmarks at the moment so I think he’s got the right form. He’s improved a bit on what he was doing last prep.

“We looked after him, we stopped him straight after the Breeders to target the Inglis Millennium and hopefully he can repay us.

“It’d be nice to draw a gate with him at one point. Hopefully he can overcome it, he’ll go to this and then through to the Millennium. That’s the path we decided to go down and he needs to run on Saturday.”

The son of I Am Invincible was $8.50 with TAB on Thursday, he's a $15 chance in the Inglis Millennium (1100m), run on February 5, and $26 in the $5m Longines Golden Slipper on March 19.

Emperor was a $460,000 yearling purchase and Dunn says he has the pedigree, being out of former smart mare Jolie Bay, and the raw talent to be his first Slipper runner in two months.

“He’s going to be a decent horse I think, he’s doing all the right things at the moment,’’ he said.

“He galloped with Subterranean and worked as good as him, and he’s a good line.

“We’re going along okay but we need a pin up horse. Hopefully it’s him, or Subterranean or Cepheus, that there’s one there, that can do it for us at the carnival.”

Dunn has sent Emperor to the trials twice to prepare for, ideally, a first-up win and is pleased to have jockey Nash Rawiller in his corner on Saturday with both Emperor and Subterranean.

It’s a partnership that the trainer would like to see continue, something that along with having some carnival stock is important to any stable looking to make inroads in a tough environment.

“Nash is a jockey we’d like to establish some sort of relationship or partnership with going forward,’’ he said.

“He’s made it clear he has belief in what we’re doing. We’re the same as everyone and try to get the best jockey we can.

“Not every jockey suits every client and every horse but we’d like to establish a connection with one of the better jockeys and at the moment he’s the one that’s putting his hand up.”

A new look Subterranean will make an earlier than planned return in the Petaluma Handicap (1100m) and Dunn said he wouldn’t be surprised if the now gelded three-year-old posts a first-up win.

Plan A was to resume in the Eskimo Prince Stakes (1200m) in two weeks as Dunn tries to assess what distance range will be his best but he said since the gelding operation the Group 3 winner has become more athletic and easier to train.

“He’s got himself up so quickly we can go to this race on Saturday and that’s a massive advantage because I’m still trying to figure out how far he needs to go,’’ he said.

“So I can get one more run in him and establish the path earlier. The sooner I can figure it out the sooner I can start training him to go that way.

“Now he’s not taking as much work to get up to the mark, I think he is in a good spot.”

Subterranean finished his two-year-old year with a fifth in the Group 1 JJ Atkins and Dunn had high hopes for the spring but he could only manage a third behind Coastwatch in the Group 3 Ming Dynasty (1400m) at Kembla in August.

Emperor runs third in a Warwick Farm trial on January 10

While his trial win was at 1200m, Dunn expects he will be sharp enough to make a dash at them in what is the lowest graded race he’s tackled in quite some time.

“We will ride him soft, when he won that stakes race at the Gold Coast (Ken Russell) he was last at the 100m,’’ he said.

“We’ll give him his shot late. There’s no reason why he can’t win, he’s racing a lesser field on Saturday than what he was meeting last preparation.

“I think it’s a good chance for him and it looks a nice race for him.”

Matt Dunn’s comments on his other Randwick runners:

Broken Arrows (race 7): “I think the 1100m will be okay. He’s flying, his work on Tuesday was great. I get the feel that win at midweek grade first-up has helped with his confidence. He’s showing it through his work and if he runs up to his work he’s going to take some beating.”

Laure Me In (race 8): “I think it’s the right spot to start him off, he’ll be better second or third-up but it looks the right race and he will run well.”

Badoosh (race 10): “He’s his own worst enemy, he gets into some crummy spots because he doesn’t participate early. He’ll have three weeks between runs and I might try sending him to water walkers or dressage to keep his brain in the right spot. It’s almost like he gets bored with it. His first-up run was what you’d expect over that trip. I just want to see him show some enthusiasm early.”

All the fields, form and replays for Saturday's Randwick meeting