Tralee Rose will start her campaign aimed at clinching a start in the Melbourne Cup when she lines-up in the Listed Heatherlie Stakes at Caulfield.
Trainer Symon Wilde has picked at Saturday’s 1700m contest as a starting point, aware that it is well short of her best distance.
But Wilde said it was a part of a plan to have the daughter of Tavistock at her peak for the Group 3 Bart Cummings (2510m) at Flemington on October 2.
The Bart Cummings offers the winner a ballot exemption into the Melbourne Cup (3200m) at Flemington on November 5.
Tralee Rose has not raced since finishing fourth behind Good Idea in the Adelaide Cup (3200m) at Morphettville in March after which she required some minor knee surgery.
She went from winning a maiden at Warrnambool first-up to a victory in the Group 3 Lord Reims Stakes (2600m) during that campaign.
“She’s bigger and stronger and coping with the work a lot better this time in,” Wilde said.
“She had quite a long campaign and made a big rise from winning a maiden to winning the Bagot Handicap and the race over in Adelaide.
“We may have gone one race too many in the Adelaide Cup, but she seems fully mature now and I think she’ll have her best campaign as a five and six-year-old.
“Whether that’s good enough to be competing with the real elite, we’ll find out soon enough.
“To my eye she has and hopefully it will be exciting times ahead.”
Wilde is expecting the 1700m journey on Saturday to be short of her best, but so long as Tralee Rose is hitting the line well, he will be happy.
He said it was the ideal pipe-opener for the Group 3 Naturalism Stakes (2000m) on September 18 followed by The Bart Cummings two weeks later.
