Last weekend’s Group 2 Missile Stakes (1200m) hero, Schwarz, could be headed for the Group 1 Manikato Stakes (1200m) at Moonee Valley on September 27.
Initially, the Group 1 Memsie Stakes (1400m) on August 31 was the target for the four-year-old entire.
However, co-trainer John O’Shea has revealed that connections might hold off until next month’s Group 1 event instead.
“We’ll just take our time with him as he had a very hard run on Saturday and he wasn’t quite ready for that,” O’Shea, who trains in partnership with Tom Charlton, told Racing.com.
“We might give him another run in Sydney before we bring him down to Melbourne. He’s going to get to Group 1 level at some stage, so we’re just trying to find that sweet spot.”
While O’Shea believes Schwarz is best suited to seven furlongs (1400m), he isn’t ruling out the Manikato Stakes.
“His racing pattern is to take a spot and finish the race off, and at The Valley, that’s quite advantageous,” O’Shea explained.
“One of the reasons why I ran him in the six (furlongs) at The Valley at his second start (Red Anchor Stakes last October) was to give him a look at The Valley, and he acquitted himself more than admirably.
“He’ll have one more run in Sydney, and then if we are happy with him, we’ll give it consideration for sure.”
Horse racing news