Hickmott sets sights on Australian Guineas for promising one-start colt

South Australian trainer Michael Hickmott has set an ambitious goal for one of his stable favourites.

Three-year-old colt Cash is set to peak next prep with the Group 1 Australian Guineas on the agenda after winning his first career start at The Valley earlier this month.

Hickmott is confident the up-and-coming star has what it takes to make it in a 1600m race like the Guineas as a leading chance after holding on to win despite not handling the tight track in his only race to date.

“We were very confident the horse would run well and win pending him handling the Valley. He didn’t (handle it), and he still won,” Hickmott told SENTrack’s Giddy Up.

“It’s a privilege for people to have entrusted me with a horse like him… I think he’s going to repay them in the Autumn.

“We will just put him on a de-load phase now and let him progress through that run. Probably at this stage, we will work back from the Australian Guineas. If he doesn’t make that grade, we’ll take a step down.”

SEN contributor John O’Neill is a part-owner of the son of Snitzel.

The Australian Guineas will be run on March 1 next year at Flemington.

The son of legendary trainer John Hickmott was full of praise for another mare in his stable, with Fancify coming into the Listed Doveton Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield on Saturday a red-hot chance.

Finishing in the top two in 10 of her 13 career starts, including seven wins, Fancify is the current favourite at $3.10 with Sportsbet.

Second favourite I Am Unstoppable ($3.20), trained by Ciaron Maher, is the main danger according to Hickmott.

“She’s a wonderfully consistent mare… this was a race I identified that might’ve slipped through the cracks with The Meteorite taking over from the Apache Cat last week… unfortunately Ciaron Maher’s wonderful team have thought the same thing. Good luck to them of course,” Hickmott said.

“She’s a bloody tough mare. She’s third-up into the preparation now (but) she hasn’t been gutted.

“She went in first-up, albeit breaking a track record with improvement to come, she then did (improve) into Flemington, which was fantastic.

“Back to the 1200 is a little bit of an experiment third-up into a preparation (but) I think she’s going to be really competitive anyway; the variables being the weather at Caulfield, the track and the rail pattern from barrier 1.”

Fancify holds all of Hickmott’s hopes at Caulfield this Saturday while he has four runners at Morphettville - Spirit Of Camelot (Race 4), Swycho (Race 5), and Qeyaady and Anotherhouse (also nominated for The Valley on Friday night) both in Race 7.