The high attrition rate from the Epsom Handicap has tempted John Sargent to reconsider a start in the Randwick mile for Kirramosa.
Trainer Chris Waller has confirmed topweight Boban will not run and the next six horses in the weights are also unlikely starters, including Boban’s stablemate and George Main Stakes winner Kermadec.
Sargent had been planning to stretch Kirramosa out to 2000m in the Craven Plate on Saturday but admitted he was flirting with an Epsom switch.
“All of the horses who have been finishing in front of her, horses like Kermadec and Pornichet, are going to Melbourne,” Sargent said.
“And she’s obviously up there with the rest of them.
“She will go to the Epsom or the Craven Plate.
“It’s falling away, the Epsom, but then the 2000 metres of the Craven Plate will suit her.”
Sargent said he would take the weekend to decide which race Kirramosa would contest at Sydney’s biggest meeting of the spring.
The 2013 VRC Oaks winner has had her career restricted by injury but her past three runs have been full of merit.
She was a closing fifth second-up in the Tramway Handicap, a race dominated by the on-pace runners, and was again hitting the line late when filling the same position behind Kermadec in the George Main.
Epsom favourite Winx had a gallop between races at Rosehill on Saturday, an exercise designed to rid her of any pent-up energy as she goes into the Group One mile three weeks after her blistering first-up win in the Theo Marks Stakes.
“She was on her toes in the stalls and I want her to do that now and not before her second-up run,” Waller said.
With weights likely to rise four kilograms in the Epsom, Hugh Bowman will take the ride.
