Trainer Matt Laurie and the Yulong team are leaving nothing to chance in their bid to win the Group 1 Caulfield Guineas with Vinrock.
Rather than travel the colt interstate for the Group 1 Golden Rose (1400m) at Rosehill on Saturday, the team has decided to stay closer to home for a tilt at the Group 2 Stutt Stakes (1600m) at Moonee Valley on Friday night.
The Caulfield Guineas is considered a stallion making race with the prestige attached and Laurie said removing an interstate trip to focus solely on the Caulfield Guineas (1600m) on October 11 was his best chance of claiming the Group 1 race.
Vinrock won the Group 1 ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes (1400m) at Randwick as a two-year-old and right from when the colt resumed this campaign Laurie had planned on taking in the Golden Rose on Saturday.
Laurie said interstate travel would not bother Vinrock, but after a first-up fourth at Caulfield over 1200m on August 30 before winning the Listed Exford Plate (1400m) at Flemington, it was decided a contest closer to home was a better option.
“We had a good think about it, and we just felt to give him the best chance to be back for the Guineas it would be to stay home and run in the Stutt,” Laurie said.
“Hopefully it’s another Group race he can add to his resume and then he can take his chance in the Guineas.
“I don’t think it will hurt him having a strong, 1600-metre run before the Guineas.
“He can begin well and take up a position, and I think the Stutt has been a reasonable form race for the Guineas.
“We’ve been to Sydney before with him. I’m not worried about the travel as such and I’d love to compete in the Golden Rose, but for his primary goal (the Guineas) we’re better off staying home and focusing on this.”
Helenus (2002), Whobegotyou (2008) and Griff (2023) are the only horses to complete the Stutt Stakes – Caulfield Guineas double this century.
