The ability is there and her outstanding record speaks for itself.
The question is whether Anabandana, one of New Zealand’s best gallopers of the past couple of seasons, still wants to be a racehorse.
An assessment of Anabandana’s desire for the competitive side of racing will be made in the Listed Carlyon Stakes (1000m) at Moonee Valley on Saturday.
Anabandana hasn’t raced since February when she finished fifth in a Group Two race at Caulfield.
Her next public appearance came at the Australian Easter Broodmare Sale in Sydney after her New Zealand owner decided she would get her best chance as a mother in Australia.
Victorian breeder Rob McClure, who also races the talented Yosei, paid $720,000, for Anabandana, almost twice the amount she’d collected on the racecourse.
While McClure bought Anabandana primarily as a breeding proposition, he saw no reason why she shouldn’t add to her racing record before getting in foal.
“She can still gallop, there’s no doubt about that,” said her new trainer Robert Smerdon.
“And she seems to have retained her enthusiasm on the training track.
“It’s just a matter of whether she still has that competitive edge in races.
“Sometimes these mares hear the biological clock ticking and they can lose interest in racing.”
Anabandana has had a solid build up with Smerdon and has improved every week since coming back into work.
A barrier trial win at Cranbourne earlier this month convinced Smerdon she would both handle the wet track she seems bound to encounter at Moonee Valley, and that she’s ready to race.
“It was only an 800-metre trial but the track was a heavy eight, which she’d never raced on before, and she seemed happy to be out there,” he said.
If, for any reason, she isn’t just as happy in the heat of racetrack battle, McClure has everything in place for her new career, beginning with a booking to the super sire Fastnet Rock.
Anabandana is one of four runners from the Smerdon stable engaged at the Valley on Saturday with the most interest from a spring viewpoint being last season’s Herbert Power Stakes winner Shewan.
That win put Shewan into the spring Cups picture last year but his preparation had to be cut short.
Smerdon will use Saturday’s Catercare Group Handicap (1519m) to get a guide on the gelding’s prospects in this year’s Cups.
“He seems to have come back really well and even though he’s older and probably more dour than he was a year ago, we’d like to see him running on,” he said.
Shewan won first-up last spring with Saturday’s rider Mark Zahra in the saddle and is at $10 to do the same again on Saturday.
