A heavy track at Mornington ahead of Saturday’s Ansett Classic is likely to sway connections of New Zealand horse Weissmuller to steer clear of the Listed race.
Weissmuller is entered for the Ansett Classic (2415m) and also the Group Three JRA Cup (2040m) at Moonee Valley on Friday night.
“I’m going to talk to the owner tonight but the way the track is at Mornington he’ll possibly go to Moonee Valley,” trainer Andrew Campbell said.
“He’s no good on a real wet track. We’ll just make a call probably tomorrow morning.”
Campbell said the Mornington event was the preferred option earlier in the week because it looked the easier race on paper.
But on Thursday the track was rated the heaviest possible after 24mm of rain in the past 24 hours took the total for the week to 55mm.
Moonee Valley was still in the dead range on Thursday.
“Yesterday we were probably 90 per cent going to Mornington but with the way the weather has been we’re probably 70 per cent going to Moonee Valley now,” the trainer said.
Weissmuller, a Group Three winner in New Zealand, is yet to win in his three Victorian starts and was runner-up in his most recent outing over 1600m in a midweek metropolitan fixture at Mornington.
Campbell said they had been trying to find races for Weissmuller to help improve his rating.
“If we’re going to stay over here with him he’s got to front up,” Campbell said.
“If we go to Moonee Valley I know it’s a big ask but he’s a pretty smart horse. So we’ll see how we go.”
Weissmuller galloped with Oasis Bloom, another JRA Cup entrant, at Moonee Valley on Monday morning with Campbell delighted with the work.
There are 13 entries for the R M Ansett Classic at Mornington with the Mike Moroney-trained former New Zealand-based galloper Surpass favourite on the back of impressive wins in his only two Australian starts after joining Moroney’s team.
