Fell Swoop’s quest for a Group One win will continue in Brisbane.
The four-year-old has been runner-up twice at the highest level this year and trainer Matthew Dale has earmarked four races during the Queensland carnival beginning with the Group Two Victory Stakes on April 30 at Doomben.
Fell Swoop
He will then look at the Group One sprint treble of the BTC Cup (1200m), the Doomben 10,000 (1350m) and Stradbroke Handicap (1400m).
“We are going to Brisbane and he’ll either start off in the Victory Stakes or he’ll trial in Sydney the day before that race and then go straight to the BTC Cup,” Dale said.
“It’s something I don’t really have to make a decision on at the moment.”
Fell Swoop finished an unlucky second to Flamberge in the Group One Oakleigh Plate in Melbourne in February before his fourth behind Griante in The Galaxy at Rosehill and second in the $2.5 million TJ Smith Stakes at Randwick won by the world’s top-ranked sprinter Chautauqua.
Dale said the gelding had come through his TJ Smith Stakes run so well he had toyed with the idea of running him on Saturday in either the All Aged Stakes (1400m) or the Hall Mark Stakes (1200m) at Randwick.
“But I thought if I ran him this weekend I would have then probably turned him out, just because I’ve raised the bar with him and he’d already had three big Group One races,” Dale said.
“I’m happy for him to have a trip away. I think it will season him up well for his future, so we’ve opted to go to Brisbane.
“There’s four races on the agenda and we’ll take it one step at a time as to how many he runs in, or if we do run him in all four.”
Fell Swoop has won eight of his 13 starts and has earned more than $900,000 prize money.
The Canberra-based Dale was proud of his performance in the TJ Smith against the country’s best sprinters.
“It was his first go at weight for age. It just shows what a competitor he is,” he said.
