Trainer Phillip Stokes has given up on his ambition of turning Sansom into a miler.
But the trainer will give Sansom the opportunity at Group 1 level when he runs the gelding again over 1400m in the Memsie Stakes at Caulfield on Saturday.
Stokes had been toying with the idea of stretching Sansom out in trip after the gelding won the Group 3 Bletchingly Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield first-up.
The trainer had seen in Sansom’s uphill work at his farm that the gelding was more relaxed this campaign and by stretching him out to 1600m it would open more options.
But after Sansom finished last in the Group 2Â P B Lawrence Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield on August 14, Stokes was left deflated.
“It was a non-event so, I might have to give up on my dream of trying to stretch him out,” Stokes said.
“He needs too much to go right and once he got in behind, he spent too many carrots pulling and carrying on where he might have been better off being allowed to slide.”
Stokes has again resorted to trying to get Sansom to settle with the gelding spending the past week at the trainer’s farm working on the hill track.
Whether that will be enough to turn Sansom around Stokes is unsure, but the Memsie Stakes had always been planned for the gelding.
“He’ll run in the Group 1,” Stokes said.
“He’s probably not good enough, but we’ll give him his chance and then reassess after that.
“He’s a quirky horse. If the right one turns up, he’ll be competitive.
“He needs to be dictating, not being dictated to, to run out that trip.”
The Memsie Stakes is the first Group 1 of the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival which officially commences on Saturday and will again be run without a crowd as it was last year when Behemoth scored.
Behemoth is set to run in the race again with Jamie Kah in the saddle.
