Adelaide jockey Jamie Kah will get a Group One opportunity in Melbourne when she rides proven performer Happy Trails in the C F Orr Stakes.
Kah rode eight-year-old Happy Trails in a barrier trial at Morphettville on Friday and trainer Paul Beshara confirmed she would be aboard the multiple Group One winner in Saturday week’s weight-for-age race at Caulfield.
“She has been doing all his track gallops,” Beshara said.
“The horse runs well for her. He settles down and runs well and we’re more than happy to put her on.”
Beshara said Happy Trails did all that was asked of him in the 1000m heat on Friday, finishing just under a length behind the winner Jimando.
“It was a nice trial,” Beshara said.
“He sat back and halfway down the straight he just gathered them up and ran into a nice, strong third place.
“That was all he had to do.”
The Orr Stakes (1400m) will kick off Happy Trails’ Melbourne campaign which is also planned to include the Peter Young Stakes and Australian Cup, the program he followed last year.
Beshara will then consider taking him back to Sydney but wants to avoid the wet autumn tracks that have plagued Happy Trails in previous years and is keen to take him to Hong Kong for the QEII Cup in April.
Beshara said everything was on target with the gelding’s campaign.
“He’s done all his work properly and everything is going very well,” he said.
For the first time in four years, Happy Trails failed to win a Group One race in Melbourne last spring but came close with his half length second to Criterion in the Caulfield Stakes.
