He has had his off-season surgery, his eight weeks of box rest and his treadmill walking sessions – now it’s back to work for Melbourne Cup favourite Puissance De Lune.
The most exciting stayer in the country begins his preparation for the spring carnival when he returns to work on Monday.
“He’ll just be trotting and cantering down the beach and wading in the water,” trainer Darren Weir said.
“He’s ready to go into work and he’ll do a couple of weeks now just poking around and then get serious from the first of June.”
Puissance De Lune rose to prominence last spring with big-margin wins in the Bendigo Cup and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Flemington to stamp himself as a potential 2013 Melbourne Cup winner.
His autumn cameo resulted in a dead-heat for first in the Group Two Blamey Stakes (1600m) in March, the same race won by Green Moon last year on his way to Melbourne Cup glory.
Shortly after his only autumn start, bone chips discovered in the import’s front fetlocks had to be removed.
His rehabilitation has been two months of box rest with controlled walking on a treadmill in the past month as he builds up to a return to work.
“He looks fantastic and he has got a bit above himself, so he needs to get back into work,” Weir said.
The trainer said he would have liked to have given the horse a proper spell but that was ruled out because he needed to be boxed while he recuperated from the surgical procedure.
Weir has not yet mapped out a spring program for Puissance De Lune.
The former French galloper is at $8 for the Melbourne Cup ahead of last year’s runner-up Fiorente at $13 and 2012 fifth placed Mount Athos at $14.
