Rise At Dawn’s (NZ) (Almanzor) rapid emergence through the ranks is eerily similar to that of glamour stablemate Mr Brightside (NZ) (Bullbars), according to co-trainer Ben Hayes, who has dubbed the All-Star Mile aspirant Lindsay Park’s ‘mini-Brightside’ ahead of their Group 1 clash on Saturday at Flemington.
Rise At Dawn has won eight of his 13 starts, including his past four on end, and booked his place in the $2.5 million race with a first-up win in the Listed Elms Stakes (1400m) at Flemington.
He has shortened from $51 into $18 in Sportsbet’s All-Star Mile market since that latest victory last month.
Standing in his way is his nine-time G1-winning stablemate, who won the 2023 All-Star Mile and narrowly denied his rivals in the G1 Futurity Stakes over 1400m at his most recent start.
While Hayes stopped short of declaring Rise At Dawn a genuine threat, he pointed to Mr Brightside’s first All-Star Mile attempt in 2022 – in which he finished fourth behind Zaaki at his 12th career start – as evidence of the similar trajectory.
“In a funny way, he’s like a ‘mini-Brightside’ for us,” Hayes said.
“He’s just gone through the grades so well and he’s still untapped at the moment, we don’t know his ceiling.
“We are throwing him right in the deep end, but this will give us an idea of where he’s at.
“Mr Brightside ran in the race at a similar stage of his career and he ran fourth, so we’re hoping he (Rise At Dawn) can do something similar then follow the dame path to the Doncaster.
“He was impressive first-up and he worked fantastic on Monday morning.”
Of the $2.80 All Star Mile favourite, Hayes said he is ready to produce another elite performance after training on well from the Futurity Stakes.
“Mr Brightside came out of the race (Futurity) in fantastic order and we can’t fault him,” he said.
“His form is good, so we think he’ll be very competitive.”
The stable did consider using Marble Arch’s (NZ) (Per Incanto) All-Star Mile golden ticket but will instead aim the mare at a G1 race in Sydney later this month.
Marble Arch earned ballot exemption for the All-Star Mile via her G2 Blamey Stakes win on Saturday.
“We did put consideration into running Marble Arch and she did back up well but not well enough,” he said.
“She’ll most likely head to the Coolmore in two weeks in Sydney.”
