Canberra trainer Matthew Dale is considering a Listed race in Melbourne as a better option than the Concorde Stakes in Sydney for promising sprinter Fell Swoop’s introduction to stakes level.
Fell Swoop made it six wins from eight starts in a benchmark-85 over 1000m on Saturday at Randwick as odds-on favourite.
At his previous start, the four-year-old scored by three lengths in an 1100m benchmark-75 on soft ground at Rosehill.
Dale said the Group Three Concorde Stakes (1000m) at Randwick on September 5 had been the race he was looking at for Fell Swoop’s next start but he could now dodge it and head to Melbourne.
“Leading into Saturday I probably had him more than likely going to the Concorde Stakes in two weeks time, but coming out of Saturday he just showed that he’s looking for a little bit further,” Dale told radio station RSN on Monday.
“So I’m going to assess through the week. We’ll keep an eye on the Concorde Stakes and still consider that if the rain is about.
“If it was a really firm track I’d probably leave that race aside. They’d more than likely be a bit sharp for him, so we’ll look also at the Listed race on the same day over 1200 (metres) at Moonee Valley as another option.”
Dale said Fell Swoop had come through his win on Saturday as well as he had come through any of his races.
“He probably just had a little bit less X-factor there on Saturday coming back from a wet track 1100-metre win back to the firmer ground and the 1000 metres. So I thought his effort was super under the circumstances,” Dale said.
