Meagher Racing is about to move into their new Pakenham base, but first they saddle their final two runners from a temporary Mornington base.
Tessatori runs in the Hayasugi – Forever a Shining Diamond (1200m) at Mornington on Wednesday, a meeting moved from Caulfield Heath, while Midori Mover lines up in a Fillies and Mares Benchmark 70 (1600m) at Moonee Valley on Friday night.
Former Singapore trainer Daniel Meagher has been overseeing the final stages of the Pakenham build before the horses move in over the weekend, while brother Chris, who made the move down from Brisbane late last year, has been preparing their current small team out of Pat Carey’s Mornington yard.
“It’s pretty much ready,” Chris Meagher said.
“Daniel’s been over there all this week getting things organised.
“We’ll pretty much move in on the weekend and they can start work there on Monday morning.
“Originally there was 20 boxes, now there’s another 20 on the same block, so we’ll have 40 in time, but when we move over on the weekend, we’ll probably have 18, including the eight that I’ve got here at Mornington.
“Dan’s got six or eight in pre-training at the moment, including the old horse from Singapore Lim’s Kosciusko and the Singapore Derby winner Lim’s Saltoro.
“We’re starting off with some nice horses, four or five unraced and a few nice Ready To Run New Zealand horses.
“We’ll be up and about fairly early, but the majority will need a bit of time.”
Meagher will transfer the eight horses he has in his name over to his brother following Tessatori and Midori Mover’s outings this week and step into and assistant trainer, racing manager role.
To date, Meagher’s four starters in Victoria are yet to trouble the scorer, but he is hopeful Tessatori and Midori Mover can run well.
“It looks a nice starting point for Tessatori on Wednesday,” Meagher said.
“I probably would have preferred Caulfield as Mornington can be a bit tricky, but it’s certainly close to home.
“She’s going extremely well, but she’s not screwed down yet, so there’s improvement to come.”
Meagher said Tessatori should appreciate stepping up to 1400m and 1600m this preparation, and as for plans, the stable will be guided by the filly’s progress and whether she can potentially be a Stakes filly.
“It’s hard to say on what she’s done in Queensland as she’s certainly got to back that up and then possibly some more down here,” Meagher said.
“Until she does that, we’ll take her along slowly, take her through the grades and see how high we can reach.”
