Clarry Conners will keep his instructions to James McDonald simple before he legs him aboard Dear Demi in Saturday’s Group One Flight Stakes.
“Win. That’s the only thing I’m going to tell him,” Conners said.
The trainer was disappointed with Dear Demi’s last-start fourth in the Tea Rose Stakes when she was cluttered up and unable to get a clear run until late.
The filly’s best performances have been when she has come wide and had plenty of galloping room.
“They went too slow for her in the Tea Rose,” Conners said.
“And she got galloped on a little bit as well but she’s come through all that now and looks a million dollars.”
Conners and owner John Singleton made the decision not to target the Golden Slipper with Dear Demi last season with her spring campaign and longer distances in mind.
After winning the Fernhill Quality (1600m), she ran in the final leg of the juvenile triple crown, the Champagne Stakes, and ran second to the unbeaten Pierro.
That has set her up for a campaign aimed at the Victorian Oaks for which she opened favourite when markets were posted this week.
She is also favourite for the Flight (1600m) at Randwick, ahead of Urban Groove and Norzita who lost the Tea Rose to Longport on protest.
Although high up in betting for the Thousand Guineas, the Bart Cummings-trained Norzita may have her last start for the campaign in the Flight.
“The Flight is her sixth run in what is her first preparation so we’ll see what happens,” owner Dato Tan Chin Nam’s racing manager Duncan Ramage said.
“It might be too much to ask to keep going but she is in fine fettle going into the race.”
While Conners is confident Dear Demi will prove to be a Group One winner during her three-year-old year, he admits it’s a lot harder for her sprinting stablemate Satin Shoes.
The mare’s best performance at the highest level was her third behind colts Sepoy and Foxwedge in the Coolmore Stud Stakes at Flemington last spring.
She runs in Saturday’s Group Two Premiere Stakes (1200m) on the back of a third in the Concorde Stakes (1100m) won by Tiger Tees and a close second to Pampelonne in the Group Two Shorts (1200m).
“I would love nothing more than to get a Group One win with this mare,” Conners said.
“She is a lovely horse and really deserves it.
“I had her entered for Melbourne as well this weekend but I think Sydney suits her better.”
Melbourne may well be where Satin Shoes gets to achieve Conners’ ambition with the Patinack Farm Classic at Flemington her Group One target.
