As the better class horses have their winter break, Robbie Griffiths and Matthew de Kock hope to strike during the off-season.
While the weather may not dictate that winter is approaching, a look through the nominations at Sandown suggests the off-season is upon us.
After a spate of meetings at Caulfield that featured a stakes’ race of some description, there will be no such thing on Saturday.
A handicap over 1400m, a two-year-old handicap, one for three-year-olds with the remainder all benchmark races is the recipe for Saturday’s nine-race card.
One training combination looking to take advantage of the off-season is the Robbie Griffiths And Mathew De Kock stable.
The pair will have Influential Girl kick start her mid-year campaign in a benchmark 78 race for fillies and mares.
While ideally, they would like to be competitive at a higher level, Griffiths and de Kock are also realists who know that to get results you need to place your horses in suitable races.
Influential Girl fits that bill.
During the off-season last year, Influential Girl was successful twice while in summer she was successful at The Valley.
She also had placings behind talented stayer Tralee Rose then in another race finished third to Defibrillate and Double You Tee.
“It will be too short, but it’s a nice starting point for her to kick off in,” Griffiths said.
“It will be a nice preparing run heading toward 1600-metre and 2000-metres races in the off-season. The way she finished last campaign was very good.
“She was good all campaign over those distances up to 2000 metres.”
Last start Geelong winner Yosemite could run in the three-year-old race over 1000m or be reserved to run over 1200m at Geelong the following week.
“We’re restricting her to the sprints and that formula is working really well,” Griffiths said.
“The 1000m with the run-in at Sandown is good for her, so we’ll have a think about it.”
