Trainer John O’Shea is sending Maximal to Melbourne in search of firmer footing to progress his claims for a start in the Caulfield Cup.
Maximal scraped into the final field for the Group 1 Turnbull Stakes (2000m) at Flemington on Saturday as number 15 in the 16 plus one emergency final field.
The son of Galileo is number 21 in the Order of Entry into the Group 1 Caulfield Cup (2400m) on October 15 and a win on Saturday would assure him of a start, although there are a number of unlikely runners ahead of him at present.
O’Shea is keen to dodge wet tracks with the imported galloper who has one win in 14 career starts to his credit after arriving in Australian from the UK 12 months ago.
Maximal, who was also nominated at Randwick on Saturday, and stablemate Benaud are Melbourne bound on Wednesday night.
“We put him in both places in case the weather didn’t look any good at Flemington, but the weather looks much better at Flemington than Randwick, so we’ll put him on the float and head down,” O’Shea told RSN927.
“We’re really happy with him.
“It’s just unfortunate that he got really heavy ground first-up in the George Main. He’s a horse that doesn’t like that sort of ground and unfortunately since we bought him, that’s what he’s had, heavy 10 tracks.
“We got a taste of what he’s capable of when he went to Brisbane and got good ground and when he’s on better surfaces he reacts really well.”
Maximal ran second in the Group 1 Doomben Cup (2100m) in May and followed up running fifth in the Group 2 Q22 (2200m) at Eagle Farm the following month.
The track at Flemington was rated a soft 5 on Wednesday morning, but track manager Liam O’Keeffe is hopeful it will be into the good range by Saturday.
“If he handles the ground, he’ll run particularly well,” O’Shea said.
“He’s made good improvement since the winter in Queensland and the jockeys that have been associated with him this season have commented on how well he is going.
“I’ll be disappointed if he’s not fighting out the finish.”
