Matthew Brown is eager to give Prix De Turn one last shot at victory as a three-year-old but he is prepared to surrender this weekend’s last opportunity if Melbourne’s weather does not cooperate.
The Turn Me Loose colt is entered for the $130,000 3YO Handicap (1600m) at The Valley this Saturday, which is the final metropolitan meeting of the season.
Brown initially planned to go to the 2040m race on the same card, but Prix De Turn missed a run at Flemington two Saturdays ago, meaning this was left as his last shot at three-year-old company.
“We were hoping he would have had a run at Flemington two weeks ago and then run in the 2000-metre race on Saturday, but just with the grass tracks not being open he missed a few gallops and things like that,” Brown said.
“So, we’ve ended up a couple of weeks behind, but we’d like to try and squeeze in one more three-year-old race if the track and weather can hold up for him.”
After rain on Monday, predictions are for up to 10mm in Melbourne on Tuesday with the chance of showers each day through until Friday.
Prix De Turn, who has won two of his seven starts, has not started since winning the Group 2 Alister Clark Stakes (2040m) at The Valley in March.
He rounded out preparations for his return with a soft 1000m jumpout at Cranbourne on Monday morning, which followed a jumpout win on July 11 after a cobweb-clearing trial seven days earlier.
“His first one was just purely to keep him on the nicer grass tracks and he had a pretty quiet trial where he trialled a bit upside down being a bit fresh,” Brown said.
“Then he won his next jumpout and basically just had a gallop this morning in behind them. He was more there just to have a good stretch of the legs and good blowout for Saturday, if he goes.”
Prix De Turn is among 38 nominations for the race that last year, when run over 1514m, saw I’m Thunderstruck defeat Tuvalu.
I’m Thunderstruck went on to win the $7.5m Golden Eagle and while that 1500m event will be too short for Prix De Turn, Brown said he could end up in Sydney later in the year.
“This spring might come up a bit soon for him, but I’d probably avoid Melbourne and maybe go somewhere like The Metropolitan in Sydney,” Brown said when asked of spring targets.
“But I haven’t really made any plans for him. I just want to get his rating up a bit then have a look at our options.”
