James Cummings will play the long game with talented colt Tom Kitten this spring as he heads towards a Group One, middle-distance target.
The Godolphin three-year-old underlined his potential with a promising juvenile campaign, hitting his straps once he extended to 1600m with a victory in the Listed Fernhill Mile and an encouraging fourth to Militarize in the Champagne Stakes.
Cummings expects him to again follow a similar pattern and in that vein, hopes Saturday’s Up And Coming Stakes (1300m) at Rosehill can provide an ideal launch pad towards races like the Spring Champion Stakes (2000m).
“This is a starting point for Tom Kitten, but we like the way he’s going through the preliminary stages of his campaign, and this should lay a good platform for the rest of his preparation,” Cummings said.
“It’s not impossible the horse could be ready to go in a Spring Champion Stakes in October.
“If that leads him down to Melbourne afterwards, we’d be delighted to get him down there.
“But we’ll get through some winnable races with him in the meantime.”
Under the Quality Handicap conditions, Tom Kitten will carry 59kg in the Up And Coming, four kilos more than his nearest weighted rival Café Millenium and six kilos above the minimum.
Tiger Of Malay, who lumped 61kg to victory two years ago, is the only horse in the past 20 years to win with a similar impost.
The race has also been a graveyard for fillies with none having triumphed since Paris Dream was successful in 1998.
The drought isn’t expected to end on Saturday with the three fillies contesting this year’s renewal – Infatuation ($34), Tutta La Vita ($17) and Hasty Honey ($101) – among the outsiders of the 12-horse field.
