Hawkes Racing concede it might be tempted to pursue some lofty autumn goals with Master Of Wine after his dazzling return over a sprint trip at Rosehill.
While the emerging staying star is on a long-range path towards the Caulfield Cup and Melbourne Cup in the spring, co-trainer Michael Hawkes has not ruled out targeting better races this campaign.
“This horse’s best attribute is he’s got the biggest turn of foot and you just saw that. As the races get longer it’s going to be pretty exciting,” Hawkes said.
“Last time we thought he was a Cups horse and he just fell short because of immaturity.
“He will definitely head towards that in the spring. We wanted to give him a light autumn but who knows where he might take us.
“The sky is the limit for this horse.”
Sent out at $5.50, Master Of Wine travelled beautifully for Tommy Berry, cruising up to the leaders and putting paid to them with apparent ease.
He scored by 3-1/2 lengths over Aliferous ($17) with Wolfe ($14) best of the rest.
“This horse has obviously got above-average ability,” Hawkes said.
“We’ve looked after him, we put him away and he made a mess of them today.”
Master Of Wine’s victory brought up a double for the Hawkes stable who celebrated an earlier win with progressive sprinter Greyworm.
