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By Ray Hickson

We’ve seen some impressive training performances in the past week in Sydney but if Kris Lees can get import Changingoftheguard home first at Rosehill on Saturday it’ll likely take the cake.

It’s been David Payne who has been stealing the show in the past seven days with Shohisha handling the jump from 1100m to 1600m last weekend then Payne did it again when Tympanist stepped from 1550m to 2400m and won at his swansong on Wednesday.

Lees is asking the six-year-old to tackle the Listed $200,000 Cincotta Chemist Winter Cup first-up at 2400m off the back of one 1200m barrier trial.

“He’s very much a mile and a half-plus horse and it was always the plan to run first-up here,’’ Lees said.

“I must say the weather over the past six weeks held us back to a point but I was able to get a trial into him last week.

“I would have liked to get a couple more grass gallops into him but he’s done plenty of work.”

Changingoftheguard, $8 with TAB on Wednesday, was purchased in 2023 by Lloyd Williams but didn’t make it back to the track until August last year in the first of three runs for Lees.

After a second in the Group 3 Colin Stephen over 2400m, where he led and was run down by First Light, Lees elected to give him a break and focus on this spring, with a race like the Group 1 Metropolitan an aim, and running in the Winter Cup is part of that plan.

“He needed more time to acclimatise and rather than push on into the autumn we thought he’ll have a run and back off again for the spring,’’ he said.

“He showed that he was a horse that needed every bit of the 2400m and now he’s had that bit more time to settle in hopefully in the next 12 months you’ll see the best of him.”

The gelding has top weight of 59kg in the Winter Cup but it’s not unprecedented for a horse to lug that sort of impost in the race as Wu Gok had 59.5kg when successful in 2020 and Destiny’s Kiss carried 58.5kg a year earlier.

Lees is realistic when it comes to what he’s expecting from the 2022 Royal Ascot winner first-up given the less than ideal preparation but he does want to see the horse show something.

“He’s a nice horse but he will probably be in need of the run,’’ he said.

“He’s got a bit of class but he could be found wanting late with his weight. He’ll have a good day out and I think he can be competitive no doubt.

“He’ll run well and it’ll come down to the pace of the race and whether he gets in from the gate.”

A hat-trick awaits lightly raced gelding Tasoraay if he can handle a rise in class in the Racing And Sports Handicap (1400m).

It took the three-year-old until his fifth start to break through for a maiden win but he backed that up when he resumed last month at the Scone carnival with a strong all the way victory.

“He showed good gate speed and sustained speed at Scone,’’ Lees said.

“It’s a big jump from a Friday at Scone, albeit Cup Day, to a Saturday meeting but he’s shown us all along he’d measure up to better company.”

Wide barriers for Lees’ two other Rosehill acceptors, Kind Words and First Person, will require some thought as to whether they take their place in their respective races.

First Person will be nominated for a midweek race next week while he said he’ll wait until Saturday before settling on whether Kind Words run in the TAB Handicap (2000m).

Changingoftheguard wins a Newcastle trial on June 2

The mare has drawn wide at her past three starts and that’s made her job tougher but Lees said she’s racing well enough to be winning a race soon.

“I’ll discuss with the owners whether she runs from that gate,’’ he said.

“She hasn’t had a lot go right the last two or three. She’s going a lot better than her form reads I feel but whether we run from out there we’ll see, it’ll be a decision for race day.”

All the fields, form and replays for Saturday’s Rosehill meeting