Trainer Charlotte Littlefield has revised her ambitions for promising gelding Big Swinger as he looks to notch his first metropolitan win at Caulfield this Saturday.
The three-year-old is set to contest the Catanach’s Jewellers Handicap (1200m), marking his sixth race start. He’s already landed three wins at the provincials but is yet to place in two city runs, both at Stakes level, including his most recent outing in the Group 2 Arrowfield Sprint (1200m) at Randwick during The Championships.
Littlefield had hoped for a ratings-boosting performance in Sydney to set up a potential run in the Golden Eagle, but plans shifted after a below-par showing.
“I brought him back from Sydney with our tail between our legs,” Littlefield told RSN.
“We went to Sydney with grand expectations that he could do something solid in that race and then leapfrog into something like the Golden Eagle.
“We’ve had to lower our expectations because we won’t have the ratings points to go to races like that in the spring.
“So, we’ll probably bypass the big ones, get him through this race, give him a bit of a break and then look to head to the rearend of spring and some of those races like The Meteorite at Pakenham.
“We’ve got to forget about race planning and consider the horse and take each run as it comes as he’s a big, raw, immature horse, and will be much better as a four and five-year-old.”
With eight rivals remaining after scratchings, Big Swinger has drawn gate two, a potentially tricky position for the large-striding gelding. Ben Allen will ride him under race conditions for the first time, having trialled him recently at Caulfield Heath over 1000m.
“He’s a horse that needs room and that’s all the instructions that I will give Ben, just give him enough room to wind up,” Littlefield said.
“He never got that chance up in Sydney. He got hemmed in on the fence in a farcical slowly run race and being a big striding horse, he needs that time to generate the natural wind-up speed and if he’s trapped on the fence, he won’t get that.
“We’ve just got to extricate him at the right time, give him the room, and that will be Ben’s only instruction he will be given.”
Littlefield may not be trackside to watch Big Swinger, as her travel plans depend on whether second emergency The Muffin Man gains a start in the Group 1 Queensland Derby (2400m) at Eagle Farm, following the withdrawal of Saint Emilion.
“I’ve changed my flight from Friday night to Saturday morning just in case,” Littlefield said.
“Hopefully I’m getting on that plane.”
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