Memes has consistently pushed the boundaries since she met Jason Coyle’s expectations by ticking off her maiden win.
But now the in-form mare faces the stiffest challenge of a breakthrough preparation when she takes on weight-for-age sprinters in the Missile Stakes at Randwick on Saturday.
When the Warwick Farm-based Coyle mapped out the plan for the four-year-old before she resumed racing in April, the goal now appears modest in the extreme.
“The plan was to win a maiden and hopefully graduate to metropolitan level,” Coyle said.
“She’s obviously come on leaps and bounds from that.”
Memes broke her duck in her ninth start when scoring at Kembla Grange under apprentice Rachel King in late April and since then the duo have recorded four more wins.
They last teamed up at Randwick on July 22 where Memes beat the well-performed Clipper and Sangiovese in a fillies and mares race.
The quality of that performance convinced Coyle to have a crack at a stakes race, a task he described as Memes’ ‘grand final’ before a well-deserved spell.
“She’s probably done her job this preparation but I’ve got a fit horse that’s going well,” Coyle said.
“When you’ve won five out of seven you’ve got to give them that opportunity to step up to a better level of racing.
“The biggest concern is stepping up to a weight-for-age Group Two race,” he said.
“It’d be nice if Kris Lees could scratch Le Romain to give us a fair chance.”
Memes was listed as a $16 chance with Luxbet on Wednesday.
Le Romain, who resumes after a campaign that featured a win in the Group One Canterbury Stakes in March, leads the market at $2.25.
Coyle expects Memes to head to the paddock after the weekend even if she maintained her imposing form.
“She can have a break then and we can have a look at autumn races depending on how she measures up on Saturday,” he said.
