Clarry Conners is racing the clock to get Dear Demi to peak fitness for Saturday week’s Caulfield Cup.
The mare didn’t get the conditioning she needed when she was held up behind horses in last weekend’s Turnbull Stakes, much to the frustration of her trainer.
Dear Demi - Luke Nolen
The race was meant to be her final tune-up before the Caulfield feature but it turned out to be little more than a stretching of legs.
“You wouldn’t know she’s gone round,” Conners said.
“It was a stupid race. My filly just went around, cantered around the track behind them, sprinted for two furlongs, couldn’t get a run and he stopped riding her 200 metres from home.
“She’s lost no weight in the last three weeks she has been there (in Melbourne) and I’m trying to get her ready for 2400 metres so I’m pushing it uphill at the moment.”
Conners contemplated backing up Dear Demi in Saturday’s Caulfield Stakes (2000m), a ploy adopted by Mark Kavanagh with his Caulfield Cup hopeful Super Cool who also didn’t get much galloping room in the Turnbull.
But in the end connections opted not to race the VRC Oaks winner on three consecutive Saturdays.
Conners will instead rely on a couple of testing trackwork gallops to bring Dear Demi up to the mark for the Cup.
“We will press on to it and she will do a fair bit of fast work in between,” he said.
James McDonald is booked to ride Dear Demi in the $2.5 million feature for which she is a $15 chance.
She has 51.5kg but weights are expected to rise at least 1kg with topweight Green Moon an unlikely starter.
