Beating Catkins is not the only concern for trainer David Vandyke as he prepares Arabian Gold for a return to racing at Rosehill on Saturday.
Catkins will go around the shortest-priced favourite of the day in the $300,000 Golden Pendant and Vandyke is well aware of the task in front of Arabian Gold given her modest record fresh from a break.
“She’s going to be competitive on Saturday but her record suggests she’s not a first-up horse,” Vandyke said.
“She’s quite vulnerable and she usually needs the run.”
Arabian Gold has added 14kg to her frame during her time out of racing since her second to Tinto in the Queensland Oaks and it is this extra bulk that Vandyke insists will help her against all comers.
“She’s a bigger mare now and I’m confident she will make the transition which many don’t from their three-year-old years to four-year-old and up,” he said.
The Golden Pendant will be Arabian Gold’s only Sydney appearance for the spring in a preparation timed to have her in peak form in a month’s time.
Vandyke has mapped out a two-start Cox Plate preparation for Arabian Gold that includes a contingency plan beyond Moonee Valley if she doesn’t make it to the weight-for-age race.
“We’ll go to the Toorak (at Caulfield) after the Golden Pendant and then pending her performance in the Toorak we may go to the Cox Plate,” he said.
“But if we are not happy we have got other options in Melbourne there including the Mackinnon Stakes.”
The Chris Waller-trained Catkins is a $1.40 chance in first markets on the Golden Pendant and Arabian Gold is the only other runner under double figures at $8.
An odds-on chance when she resumed, Catkins jumps from barrier six and is expected to receive a similar run to the one which carried her an easy Sheraco win over My Sabeel.
The Rosehill meeting also features the Gloaming Stakes where Godolphin’s Sweynesse will run favourite in the lead-up race to the Group One Spring Champion Stakes.
Golden Rose runner-up Scissor Kick takes on seven rivals in the Stan Fox Stakes while borderline Epsom Handicap horses headed by early favourite Rock Sturdy will be trying to impress in the Shannon Stakes.