Racing: Sydney debut pleases trainer

Brian Jenkins has no doubt New Zealand colt Dr Green has the class to measure up to A$3 million Golden Slipper class.

The Cambridge trainer could not have been more delighted with Dr Green's third to Domesday and Flying Pegasus in his Australian debut in Saturday's A$200,000 Silver Slipper Stakes at Rosehill.

The question mark Jenkins has is how Dr Green will hold up mentally as he heads into the A$140,000 Skyline Stakes in three weeks then, hopefully, on to the Golden Slipper a further three weeks on.

Golden Slippers, and to only a slightly lesser extent all major Sydney 2-year-old racing, is much more about absorbing mental pressure than it is about speed and talent.

The blowtorch pressure of a Slipper preparation has sent a long line of juveniles to a form grave over the years.

How Dr Green manages his impression of his tough third on Saturday will define his chances of measuring up in Sydney's signature horse race.

And that will show in the Skyline, the winner of which is exempt from the Slipper ballot.

The outside No 6 barrier draw and the fact he hadn't raced for three months counted heavily against Dr Green.

Jenkins has been trying to teach the extremely fast colt to settle in his training, but things did not pan out for that to happen on Saturday.

"We wanted him in the one out and one back spot, but he started pulling and Rhys [McLeod] had no choice but to let him slide and he then had to work a bit to get the front."

Jenkins said the colt had got himself more fired up before the race than he would liked to have seen, but felt the long gap back to his last race was the major cause of that.

Dr Green found a real kick when the challenges came early in the home straight and for at least 100m after that he looked the winner.

But the point at which he suddenly ran out of hard conditioning is clearly defined. He was getting very tired in the closing 40m, but just managed to hold onto third.

"We wanted him to get the one, one, because that's probably where you'd prefer to be in the Golden Slipper. We'll probably just run him in front from this point.

"It was a terrific run when you analyse it. Not many horses come over here and measure up to the best of their 2-year-olds. He's finished third to two of the best of them and there's a lot of improvement in him.

"Now we'll have to see how he'll handle it mentally."

The first good sign was that Dr Green went home after the race and ate his dinner.

"He fair dived into his food this morning," said Jenkins yesterday.

Dr Green has to win the Skyline to gain a Golden Slipper start.

Jenkins knows that even if that does not happen, being in Sydney is a win situation for the horse.

"Horses, and humans too, always improve mentally as a result of their first trip away from home. It's all about experience and you can't get that standing in a paddock at home."