Lindsey Smith is taking no chances with leading Perth horse Scales Of Justice
Trainer Lindsey Smith is taking no chances with leading Perth horse Scales Of Justice ahead of his Melbourne campaign.
With the gelding’s first run still six weeks away, Smith and Scales Of Justice have settled into the stables of Jarrod McLean who combines training his own horses with his job as Warrnambool foreman for Darren Weir.
Smith has the Group One double of the Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes (1400m) on October 1 and Toorak Handicap (1600m) on October 14, both at Caulfield, as targets for the five-year-old.
The pair arrived from Western Australia late last week.
“He travelled over well,” Smith said.
“We had the wind behind us from Perth and it only took us two hours and 20 minutes to get here,” Smith said.
“The journey to Warrnambool was a little bit harder on him, but he ate the majority of his feed the next day.”
Smith said he arrived early to get the gelding accustomed to different training conditions.
Ideally Scales Of Justice would have been suited working on the heavy sand through the dunes, but with those off limits Smith will now mix his training.
“It might do him some good being trained on top of the ground,” Smith said.
“We can still use the beach but he can have a couple of jump-outs at Warrnambool and then some trials somewhere.
“The different training I thought would be good and put more sprint in his legs.”
Smith says Scales Of Justice’s first two runs will determine his spring path, saying if he performs up to expectation the gelding may remain in Melbourne.
Scales of Justice won the Railway Stakes at Ascot in the summer before just failing to claim a Group One double when beaten in the Kingston Town Stakes with jockey Douglas Whyte copping a one-month suspension for failing to ride him out to the finish.
The trainer formed a strong bond with McLean and Darren Weir last summer with Weir developing a new property at Maldon near Bendigo, along the lines of Smith’s property near Perth.
“He came and stayed at home and galloped his horses at my place,” Smith said.
“He’s designing it on what I’ve got at home and when it’s ready I’ll come over and have a gallop with him and see how it plays.”
