Trainer Phillip Stokes has made a good fist of things since setting up a base in Victoria, but always enjoys heading back to Adelaide.
With a base at Morphettville, Stokes can easily swing horses between the two states and with the Adelaide Carnival and it’s four Group 1 races are fast approaching, Stokes is keen to be a player again at this year having collected a Group 1 prize in the past two years.
This year he has his eyes on the Group 1 sprint double of the Robert Sangster Stakes (1200m) on April 25 and The Goodwood (1200m) two weeks later with Ferivia who has her first run back from a spell in the Group 3 Don Casboult Classic (1200m) on Saturday.
It will be Ferivia’s first outing since finishing sixth in the Thousand Guineas (1600m) at Caulfield in October.
“She’s jumped out really good going into this and I feel she’s come back stronger, but I’m still not sure where her distance lies,” Stokes said.
“I know she’s got good from 1200 to 1400 (metres), so we’ve just got to work out whether we go down a Sangster-Goodwood path, or aim at something else, but I couldn’t be happier with how she is coming up.”
Ferivia started her career in Adelaide winning on debut at Murray Bridge before heading across to Melbourne where she finished second at Sandown before winning the Quezette Stakes at Caulfield.
Later in that first campaign, Ferivia won the Thousand Guineas Prelude (1400m) at Sandown, defeating Ole Dancer and Salty Pearl.
“Before she even came over, she’d had a good preparation in Adelaide, but by the time she got to the Thousand Guineas she’d had enough,” Stokes said.
“She still ran a creditable race, and the form has been franked.
“I think she is exciting.”
Stokes said there was options for Ferivia following Saturday’s return.
With horses stabled in Sydney for the Carnival, Stokes said the filly could make her way north for the P J Bell Stakes (1200m) at Randwick on April 4 or head to Adelaide for the R N Irwin Stakes (1100m) at Morphettville the following week.
“We’ll keep everything open as we have horses up in Sydney, so it will be easy to send her up if we think that’s the right way to go, otherwise we could go straight to Adelaide,” Stokes said.
“We’ll see how she goes on Saturday.”
