Smart sprinter Elite Elle will begin the final phase of her career when she has her first run for five weeks at Moonee Valley.
Elite Elle will visit Arrowfield Stud stallion Smart Missile during the breeding season but trainer Robert Smerdon has set the mare for another stakes win before she starts life as a broodmare.
Elite Elle, Moonee Valley
The mare was a Listed winner as a three-year-old when prepared by Tony Vasil but Smerdon says the rising five-year-old is out for her maiden Group win in the coming weeks.
“She’ll run on Saturday and then the Monash and Bletchingly Stakes at Caulfield, which are both Group Three races, and then she’ll go to stud,” Smerdon said.
The Shamardal mare was placed in last year’s Monash Stakes when the race carried Listed status and will have a lead-up run on Saturday.
Elite Elle has won three of her five outings on slow and heavy tracks and is likely to get conditions to suit her.
Bookmakers believe Elite Elle can beat the males, installing the four-year-old as a $5 second favourite behind the Mick Price-trained Le Bonsir.
Drawing barrier 14 could hamper Elite Elle’s bid for her eighth win but Smerdon said the gate simplified apprentice Jackie Beriman’s tactics.
Beriman’s 2kg claim, which will take Elite Elle down to 53.5kg, will also help the mare’s cause.
“She’s drawn a bit awkwardly so she’s probably committed to going forward because she’s got no weight,” Smerdon said.
Smerdon will start another former Tony Vasil-trained galloper in the same race when Under The Eiffel resumes from an enforced spell.
Under The Eiffel’s autumn campaign lasted only two runs before the gelding needed laser surgery on a throat issue.
Smerdon has booked another apprentice, Tom Sadler, to ride Under The Eiffel.
