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By Ray Hickson

Trainer Danny Williams is acutely aware of the following his cult hero Shelby Sixtysix developed during his amazing autumn rise so he can only hope the Group 1 winner makes a positive start to his spring at Randwick on Saturday.

Danny Williams and Mandy O'Leary celebrate Shelby Sixtysix's Galaxy win. (Pic: Steve Hart)

He’s quick to highlight that he doesn’t expect Shelby Sixtysix to give Eduardo and company the fright that he did in the Challenge Stakes back in March over the same course as the Group 3 $500,000 Southern Cross Group Concorde Stakes (1000m).

The gelding’s record says he’s not a first-up performer – to be fair last time he resumed from a spell was in a Class 3 Highway – and despite three barrier trials Williams said he’s going present in the yard on the big side.

“When you see the horse you’ll understand what I’m talking about,’’ he said.

“The expectations aren’t high, the only way to get this horse fit is to race him.

“We’ve given the horse three trials and every time he has improved in fitness but he hasn’t set the world alight and he’s needed the run.”

What Williams knows about the Concorde is that it’s very likely to be run at a genuine tempo with the likes of Malkovich and Eduardo engaged.

From his outside alley he’d expect Shelby Sixtysix, $19 with TAB on Thursday, to be outpaced early. What he doesn’t want to see is the horse dropping out at the finish, he wants him to be strong to the line with the knowledge he’s only going to improve.

“I’d like to see the horse run a very respectable race,’’ he said.

“I know he has a lot of people following him and they have expectations and I just hope to see him be competitive.”

A quick recap of the Shelby Sixtysix story for those who missed it. He started last season as an $11 chance in a Highway, he eventually broke a two year run of outs by winning a Highway in February.

Then Williams threw him in the deep end on a seven day back-up and he ran past Nature Strip and almost stole the Challenge from Eduardo, another week later he took out the Group 3 Maurice McCarten.

Then on his fifth consecutive Saturday of racing he was the fairytale of Golden Slipper Day when he won the Group 1 Galaxy. He was named NSW Country Horse Of The Year at the recent NSWROA Awards and has now earned almost $800,000.

Williams admits he went a run or two too far after that memorable streak but said the gelding enjoyed his spell and while he came out of the paddock with a foot abscess, which put him 10-12 days behind schedule, since it has settled the preparation has been faultless.

“It’s the soundest and the best preparation he’s ever come up and it’s the first time I can honestly say we’ve had no hiccups,’’ he said.

“He’s a very happy horse. I would have liked to have had more time to give him another barrier trial.

“The club were good enough to allow me to have a gallop on the course proper (on Tuesday) after a fair bit of rain overnight.

“I went out on a limb thinking it could all fall to pieces but he had a good strong gallop and it’s the first bit of fast work I’ve given him for a month apart from the trials.”

All going well the Goulburn trainer is aiming at the Group 3 $2 million Sydney Stakes (1200m) on TAB Everest Day.

Shelby Sixtysix’s galloping partner on Tuesday morning was Jalmari who lines up in the TAB Highway, now worth $120,000, alongside another stablemate in Prince Nicconi.

In his only other Highway start the latter ran third behind Shelby Sixtysix while the former will be fitter for one run from a spell in the Highway of two weeks ago, where he ran 10th behind Pokerjack.

Shelby Sixtysix wins a trial at Wagga on August 25

“It was an outstanding run the other day, he’d only been in eight weeks and had three gallops in the prep,’’ Williams said of Jalmari.

“He got a little bit of a squeeze late otherwise I think he’d finish a couple of lengths closer.

“I was toying with saving him for the following week over 1400m but I felt the roomier track would be better for him, Rosehill can be a bit tricky for backmarkers.”

Prince Nicconi won first-up at the Sapphire Coast and Williams said his second-up performance at Kembla Grange, when sixth behind Headwall, should be forgiven.

“We made a mistake, I said to Nick Heywood to ride him a little bit conservative in what looked on paper a high pressure race,’’ he said.

“That speed wasn’t injected into the race and he began so well that next thing he was over racing and he sort of choked himself down. There were horses getting to the line better than him but he fought Nick hard throughout and was only beaten 1.2 lengths.”

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