The decision regarding Ole Dancer’s participation in a Stakes race at Sandown will be heavily influenced by the weather and the resultant track conditions.
The Peter Moody and Katherine Coleman-trained mare is currently nominated for the Group 3 Carlyon Stakes, a 1000-metre event scheduled for Saturday.
This year, the Carlyon Stakes will be staged at Sandown, as its usual venue, Moonee Valley, is undergoing a significant rebuild and is still approximately 12 months away from resuming racing.
Coleman confirmed that the stable is closely monitoring the weather and track surface, which was a Soft 6 on Thursday.
“She’s come back good,” Coleman remarked.
“She has had that one trial. We’re looking at keeping her to shorter trips this time around, but we’re also keeping a watch on the weather and track conditions, so whether she kicks off this weekend or we wait for the following week, I think she will be forward enough to run well wherever we go.”
Having won the Group 1 Thousand Guineas (1600m) at Caulfield last spring, Coleman advised that the Ole Kirk filly would be kept to shorter distances this season.
Coleman suggested that keeping the mare fresh might be the key to extracting her best performances.
“We felt that she lost a bit of that spark in a couple of her runs when we tried to stretch her out, so we’ve decided to drop her back in trip, keep her fresh, and pinging,” Coleman stated.
“That’s how we’re looking at the prep at this stage and whether we do end up getting her back out 1400 (metres), we’ll be open minded.”
Ole Dancer’s most recent outing was in March, finishing towards the rear of the field in the Group 1 Coolmore Stakes (1500m) at Rosehill.
This preceded a second-place finish on February 14 at Flemington behind Sass Appeal, and a third in the Group 1 Surround Stakes (1400m) at Randwick.
The mare impressed in a recent 800-metre jump-out on July 28, defeating stablemate Sheza Alibi and showing she had returned in good order.
Coleman indicated that the stable would maintain flexibility regarding Ole Dancer’s racing tactics on Saturday, given her versatile running style.
“We’ll just ride her where she’s comfortable,” Coleman concluded.
With the Carlyon Stakes being a key race on Saturday, exploring Australian betting sites could offer competitive racing betting markets.
