After stringing together three straight wins during a late autumn campaign, Charlotte Littlefield said she was feeling the pressure as Concord Connie stepped out for her first run of the spring at Mornington.
Concord Connie was sent off the $1.30 favourite and was just touched out on September 26 over 1200m.
While disappointed, Littlefield said Concord Connie had performed well and the trainer is expecting another bold showing from the mare when she steps out in the Group 3 Tristarc Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield on Saturday.
“I think everybody involved in Connie felt the pressure first-up,” Littlefield said.
“There was a lot of talk about her, and I felt she ran super. It was simply a track that didn’t suit, and we knew that.
“Everyone had caveats against her leading into that race, but there wasn’t another option.
“She wasn’t ready to travel to Sydney and that was the only other option for her as there wasn’t a race for her at Caulfield (a day later).
“We were delayed a week as we were going to go to the How Now Stakes at Caulfield, but that was very competitive and the weather forced us to go a week later.
“Sometimes you just have to roll with the punches and see how that go.
“A win would have been great. She thought she had won, we all thought she had won, and in the end, it was a bob of the head.”
With that run under the belt and the step up to 1400m, Littlefield is expecting another forward showing from Concord Connie.
But the trainer is a little wary of gate 11 over the 1400m trip at Caulfield with the mare showing a preferred liking for Flemington in the past.
Littlefield is hoping to get Concord Connie to the Group 1 Empire Rose Stakes (1600m) at Flemington on October 31.
“We know that she is a Flemington horse, but we are having to go where we need to go being that grade of horse,” Littlefield said.
“We would love to end there (Flemington) during Cup week. There’s a couple of nice options and Saturday will tell us which option.
“We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, but she is definitely a better product heading into this race and will be better again.
“The way she is going, she will run very well on Saturday.”
