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By Ray Hickson

If Group 1 winning Queensland sprinter Apache Chase is good enough to beat a line up including at least a quarter of the TAB Everest field at Royal Randwick on Saturday then he’d be deserving of one of the remaining TAB Everest slots.

Trainer Desleigh Forster (Pic: Bradley Photos)

That’s trainer Desleigh Forster’s hope as the five-year-old tackles Everest runners Lost And Running, Mazu, Overpass and Masked Crusader in the Group 2 $1 million Bisley Workwear Premiere Stakes (1200m).

Forster has a four start Sydney campaign in mind for Apache Chase that will take in the $2 million Sydney Stakes (1200m), if he doesn’t gain an Everest slot, then the $3 million Nature Strip Stakes (1300m) on October 29 and likely the $1 million The Hunter (1300m) at Newcastle two weeks later.

“It’s always been on the agenda after he went out, I thought it’d be a nice race for him to start in Sydney,’’ Forster said.

“If he races like we know he can maybe someone who has one of the last slots might want him.

“We know how hard it is going to be. These are the best sprinters in Australia, and there’s only two of them missing, and it’s going to give us a good gauge on where we’re going.”

Apache Chase has raced in Sydney once for a gallant fourth in last year’s Golden Eagle behind I’m Thunderstruck and since then he’s added the Group 1 Kingsford-Smith Cup (1300m) to his record defeating Paulele back in May.

The gelding is a $51 chance in TAB Everest betting and was $18 with TAB in the Premiere on Wednesday.

With Godolphin picking from their own stock, effectively only two slots remain after three horses were locked into the Everest field this week leaving James Harron and Bon Ho to select their runners.

While he is a noted first-up performer, he won the Weetwood at Toowomba first-up on the Golden Eagle path last year while he was narrowly beaten in The Archer at Rockhampton prior to his Group 1 win, Forster is wary that he needs to be fit for Randwick.

“He trialled three weeks ago, it was just a nice trial, then he had a solid jumpout last Tuesday at Doomben,’’ she said.

“We wanted to clean out a few cobwebs and give him a nice trial because we know how hard this race is going to be so we want him right up to the mark.

“Most of these horses are fit and had a run but he comes to hand quite quick and he’s very good fresh.”

What Forster doesn’t want is a very heavy track for Apache Chase’s first-up Everest audition.

Have a look at this great jumpout video of Apache Chase from yesterday at Doomben pic.twitter.com/BvHHWUbDte

— Desleigh Forster Racing (@Desracing74) September 21, 2022

But she’s buoyed by regular jockey Jim Byrne making the trip to Sydney again given they’ve developed a strong association in the past 18 months or so.

“He goes and gives 110 per cent but we don’t want to bottom him out first-up,’’ she said.

“He’s much better on top of the ground, the harder and faster it is the better he is but he’s adaptable and doesn’t know how to run bad races.

“He doesn’t have to lead, he has good gate speed and a high cruising speed. Jim knows him well and he’ll ride him how he finds him.

“Jim knows how fast he can go on this horse. The good thing about this horse is he can quicken off a high speed.”

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