Major stables to face French resistance

THE odd one out ahead of Saturday night's The Hayden, Trent Dawson hopes to be the sole person standing on the winners' podium after the $216,000 feature.

Dawson will be represented by French Fries in the Albion Park-based Group Two, with the son of Captaintreacherous the only one of the 10 runners not trained by Grant Dixon or Chantal Turpin.

Turpin has five runners in the field, including the $2 favourite, Dele Row.

Dixon rounds out the line-up with four runners, with Cool And Classy considered his main chance at $5.20 from the pole.

The winner of the 2138-metre major gains a berth in the $2.1million The Eureka at Club Menangle on September 6.

"It is interesting the way the field has turned out, but you can't question the quality of the runners," Dawson said. "There are some very nice types in the race.

"My bloke is the odd one out, but hopefully I'm the odd one out on the winners' podium after the race!"

To be driven by Dawson, French Fries has drawn to search for the lead from barrier three.

The gelding led from the pole in last week's Breeders' Classic Final before being beaten a head from Udderly Sweet along the sprint lane.

"He has probably let himself down a couple of times due to greenness when I felt he should have won," Dawson said. "That includes last week when he got keen down back straight after hitting a wheel a couple of times and went quicker than he should've.

"Then when he got out on his own he started star gazing, but I can't imagine he will be out on his own at the 400 this week.

"You've got to go forward from three. There is pace inside and outside of him, but sometimes you simply have to roll the dice a little bit.

"I don't think it is out of his reach and I think the further we go the better he will be, so hopefully it is this week."