Top colt Foxwedge has arrived in Melbourne to prepare for his tilt at the Group One Lightning Stakes.
The Sydney three-year-old has not raced since running benchmark colt Sepoy to a head in the Coolmore Stud Stakes at Flemington in October.
“He arrived in Melbourne last night in preparation for the Lightning,” trainer John O’Shea said.
Foxwedge showed an affinity for the straight course with his close second to Sepoy, prompting O’Shea to aim him for a first-up tilt at the prestigious Melbourne sprint.
The race has also been earmarked as the starting point for outstanding sprinter Hay List.
Foxwedge will have a two-start campaign in Melbourne with the Group One Newmarket Handicap (1200m) at Flemington on March 10 also on the agenda.
If the colt won one or both races, O’Shea said he would sit down with owner Dr Edmund Bateman and discuss the possibility of a trip to Royal Ascot.
The news wasn’t as good for one of O’Shea’s prominent two-year-olds with Don’t Blink ruled out of the autumn after suffering a colic attack.
“She’s currently at the Randwick Equine Centre,” O’Shea said.
“We won’t see her in the autumn.”
Don’t Blink won her only start at Canterbury in November and was immediately spelled with the autumn in mind.
Another of O’Shea’s youngsters, Pinocchio, was scheduled to make her debut this weekend but has been scratched from races at both Canterbury and Warwick Farm.
A sister to O’Shea’s former star galloper Racing To Win, Pinocchio was withdrawn due to the wet tracks.
“I think fairly highly of her and I didn’t think she needed to kick off on a wet track,” O’Shea said.
He does hope to have two runners at Warwick Farm in Vantage Point and Alberton Park, who contest the Schweppes Handicap (1200m) and Super Saver Handicap (1300m) respectively.
“Both mares are last start winners and there’s nothing better than mares in form,” O’Shea said.
AAP TURF
