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By Ray Hickson

John O’Shea’s emerging sprinter Lost And Running is basically auditioning for a slot in the TAB Everest when he headlines Saturday’s Listed $140,000 Vinery Luskin Star Stakes (1300m) at Rosehill.

Trainer John O'Shea (Pic: Bradley Photos).

So far two slots have been filled for the $15 million sprint – Nature Strip (Chris Waller Racing) and Masked Crusader (Max Whitby & Neil Werrett) – and O’Shea said it’s far from premature to be talking about Lost And Running as potentially one of the final 12 come October 16.

Lost And Running is a $21 chance with TAB in its all-in Everest market as he attempts to make it six wins from seven starts at his stakes debut.

“At the start of this preparation it was always our goal to try to keep him unbeaten so there was an opportunity to begin some discussions to get a slot,’’ O’Shea said.

“We’ve begun discussions and I think if he wins on Saturday we’re good.

“If he could win it’d be a feather in his cap because he’d have a record of six out of seven and a nice stakes win. He’d probably go to 100 rating points and that’s a nice progression for this preparation.”

It might be considered an ‘off-season’ Listed race but three of the past four winners of the Luskin Star Stakes have found themselves in the TAB Everest.

The 2017 winner Clearly Innocent ran seventh, Osborne Bulls (2018) ran third, as did Trekking (2019), in the Everest the same year they won the sprint usually conducted at Scone.

After Lost And Running’s dominant four length win at Randwick on April 24 O’Shea compared him favourably with Trekking and suggested he was capable of winning a good sprint race in the spring.

The Randwick trainer, chasing his first Everest runner, said the gelding is the most exciting horse he’s had anything to do with since Astern, during his time with Godolphin, and while it may look ambitious at the moment he's a long way form realising his potential.

“You’ve got Nature Strip and Hawkesy’s horse (Masked Crusader), and Eduardo is a deserved runner, but it’s a lottery the rest,’’ he said.

“When he won his maiden a bloke whose opinion I respect said it was the highest rating maiden in Australia in 25 years. We’ve always thought he is a fair horse. It’s matter of me training him properly and getting him through the grades and keeping him in one piece.

“If you go through my bloke’s form at the same stage he’s probably ahead of schedule on Nature Strip so who is to say he won’t end up there."

Now a multiple Group 1 winner, Nature Strip won four of his first seven starts and, like Lost And Running, made his stakes debut at the seventh before winning his first Listed race at start nine.

Tommy Berry rides Lost And Running from barrier 10 of 11 in the Luskin Star, he was $1.65 TAB favourite on Wednesday, but O’Shea has never concerned himself with wide alleys for this horse.

In his only defeat, a narrow second to Enchanted Heart at Canterbury, the gelding was never able to be comfortable in the run but on the wide open spaces at Randwick last start he was able to get rolling.

“I don’t have to say a great deal, you only have to look at the form around him,’’ he said.

“He beat Enchanted Heart by six lengths the other day and she came out and won a stakes race (the Takeover Target at Gosford last week).

Lost And Running wins at Randwick on April 24

“I think he has a lovely demeanour, a good racing pattern and a good profile so he’s heading in the right direction. Now he gets to open company and he’s ready to go there.”

Aside from the Luskin Star, results interstate on Saturday have the potential to shape the Everest field if a slot holder is willing to move with five months still to play out.

Last year’s Everest third placegetter Gytrash clashes with another 2020 Everest runner Behemoth in the Group 1 Goodwood in Adelaide while Eduardo, Trekking and Wild Ruler contest the Group 1 Doomben 10,000 in Brisbane.

If O’Shea is able to secure at TAB Everest slot for Lost And Running with another impressive win at Rosehill he said he’s likely to play the spring in a way to ensure he peaks in the Everest and doesn’t have gut busters along the way by unnecessarily taking on the likes of Nature Strip.

“You don’t want to be burning gas before you get into the Everest, you want to go in there on an upward spiral,’’ he said.

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