A unique edition of the Australia Stakes sees the first of the Moonee Valley feature races held away from home with the 2026 running taking place at Pakenham.
With the Moonee Valley racecourse undergoing a full redevelopment, the Group 2 event over 1200-metres moves to the Southside Racing venue for the first time on Friday and Ciaron Maher is lining up quality colt Jimmy Recard along with stablemate Nadal.
They have the task of taking on Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap (1400m) winner War Machine who opened as the $1.65 favourite after acceptances on Wednesday.
Jimmy Recard came under notice on the three-year-old scene when winning the Group 3 Vain Stakes (1100m) at Caulfield in August and then faced the topline of his age group throughout the spring including Tentyris.
This time first-up it is a different situation against the older horses for a colt who Maher’s national assistant trainer Jack Turnbull says has the talent.
“Jimmy’s good,” Turnbull said.
“He’s had two jump outs and we’ve been happy with both of them.
“He’s come through them fine and he’s a big lad with plenty of racing to come.
“Ultimately we’ll follow the weather that is around and whether that is in Adelaide or Sydney to look at something like The Galaxy, that would be fantastic.
“For the moment to kick him off, he’s ready to go, and goes well first-up”
Nadal was beaten by fellow Australia Stakes contender Hedged in the Listed Christmas Stakes (1200m) at Sandown last month after a late 2025 preparation which failed to yield a win after a the five-year-old had bone chip surgery saw him out of racing action for most of the year.
“He has taken a bit longer to come to his best,” Turnbull said.
“It was a bit of a shame that we got so far back in running last start because his late work was quite good.
“The threat through the whole preparation is that he could regress in his action after the surgery but he would be a peak fitness and hopefully the likes of War Machine need the run.”
Jimmy Recard is rated a $10 chance while Nadal is at $8 for the Australia Stakes.
