In the days after Protectionist’s Melbourne Cup win for German trainer Andreas Wohler, the man given the job of guiding the next stage of the horse’s career was already making plans.
And the race Kris Lees identified as a Sydney autumn carnival target for Protectionist was Saturday’s BMW (2400m) at Rosehill.
Protectionist
“After the Melbourne Cup, I thought this was the right race to aim him at,” Lees said.
“The path we took to get there became a little clouded given the programming with the Ranvet being the week before.
“He’s now getting out to a more appropriate journey and we always thought it would be a race he could show up in.”
Protectionist will be trying to become the first Melbourne Cup winner since Makybe Diva to claim The BMW in the same season, a feat she achieved a decade ago.
However, Lees is also mindful the same race proved a bridge too far for the champion mare after the first of her three Melbourne Cup wins 12 months earlier.
She was beaten into third by Grand Zulu before going on to claim the Sydney Cup, a race which is part of Protectionist’s autumn campaign.
Lees is still on a learning curve with the German import but Protectionist’s two campaign runs over middle distances in Melbourne have provided the trainer with some important insights.
“We’ve learned that he is a genuine two-miler,” Lees said.
“I think those couple of runs have really switched him on. They’ve tightened him up a bit condition-wise and he appears to have switched on off the back of that.”
Despite his status as the reigning Melbourne Cup winner, Protectionist will go into Saturday’s weight-for-age contest as a virtual second stringer for the stable.
Lucia Valentina has been marked higher in the market and backs up after finishing third to Contributer in the Ranvet Stakes last week.
Jim Cassidy takes over from the suspended Hugh Bowman and Lees expects the mare to relish the extra distance which she has raced over twice for Group One placings in the Australian Oaks and Caulfield Cup.
“She’s backed up previously in New Zealand and two of her best runs have been at 2400 metres without winning,” Lees said.
Japan’s To The World has commanded the early attention from punters, usurping Godolphin’s Hartnell for BMW favouritism shortly after markets opened on Wednesday.
Lucia Valentina ($8) and Protectionist ($11) remain unchanged.
