Pop Award will return to Stakes grade this Saturday and the classy mare’s co-trainer Lyn Tolson is hoping the rise in grade will be offset by her competing on her home track.
The five-year-old will have her first start at Mornington in the $200,000 Listed Hareeba Stakes (1200m), the feature sprint race on the Mornington Cup card.
Pop Award returned to the winners’ list at Flemington on March 28, scoring in an 1100m mares’ handicap, and Tolson considers this weekend’s 1200m event her best shot at a feature win at her home course.
“Mornington is her home track, so if we could draw a gate it’d be good,” Tolson, who trains in partnership with daughter Leonie Proctor, said.
“From what we can read, it’s going to be a bit stronger Hareeba than we’ve had, but you can’t keep them in cotton wool all the time at home in their box all the time, can you?”
Half-brothers Desert Lightning and Oak Hill, Punch Lane, Corniche, Big Swinger, Recommendation and Rosberg are among Pop Award’s potential rivals in the Hareeba Stakes, which attracted 27 nominations.
The daughter of Shamus Award will be chasing a second Listed success, having won the 1200m Regal Roller Stakes at Caulfield last August.
That is the biggest of her six wins, which have come from 13 starts.
Only five of those starts have been on tracks rated Soft or Heavy, which have contributed three wins, and Tolson said the forecasted showers for Thursday and Friday arriving would help her prospects.
“She does appreciate a bit of give in the track and she did a lot of racing last prep, when she wasn’t going any good, on firmer going and she just likes the sting out,” Tolson said.
“So, hopefully Mornington is not too hard, but she’s an honest mare and she’s trained on well from her last race.”
The Hareeba Stakes is an audition for a potential trip to Adelaide for Pop Award with Tolson identifying the $150,000 Group 3 Proud Miss Stakes (1200m) on May 9 as a possible follow up if she performs well this weekend.
