Group One winner Linebacker (NZ) (Super Seth) tuned up for forthcoming spring assignments with a trials victory over 1000m at Hawkesbury on Monday in the hands of Zac Lloyd.
The imposing son of Super Seth was having his second trial and came from just behind Espionage (Zoustar) to glide past that rival over the concluding stages.
It was the second trial for the John O’Shea and Tom Charlton-trained four-year-old who will resume in Saturday week’s Gr.2 Tramway Stakes (1400m) at Randwick.
“It has been difficult getting them ready with the wet weather,” O’Shea said. “He is a bit big in condition but he trialed well on Monday and we will get him started in the Tramway.
“Then he will have another run over seven furlongs in the Bill Ritchie (Gr.3, 1400m) and then go to The Epsom (Gr.1, 1600m)
“He will either run in the King Charles (Gr.1, 1600m) or else we will wait and run in the Golden Eagle (A$10 million, 1500m). He is only four once so it will probably be our main goal.
“It is a hard race, there is no doubting that, but the fact that it has moved to Randwick plays into his hands a little.
“He is a much better horse at Randwick so we will be inclined to target that race and if we want to target a race in Melbourne we can go down after that.”
Lineback defeated Broadsiding (Too Darn Hot) when winning the Gr.1 Randwick Guineas (1600m) last season before finishing a luckless eighth in the Gr.1 Doncaster Handicap (1600m).
“He missed the kick and shouldn’t have been where he was,” O’Shea said.
“We wanted to be either leading or box-seating so when he missed the kick, Zac was forced to ride him quiet, and he should have won in a hand-canter.
“He ran fantastic but once he missed the start the race was over for us because they walked.”
By Waikato Stud’s boom young sire Super Seth, Linebacker was bred by GSA Bloodstock.
The bold chestnut was purchased out of Haunui Farm’s draft at New Zealand Bloodstock’s National Yearling Sale for $160,000 by O’Shea and Suman Hedge Bloodstock. He is a son of the English-bred Oasis Dream mare Garden Of Swans, who is a half-sister to the Gr.1 Sandown Eclipse Stakes (2000m) winner and sire Mukhadram.
