Sunshine Coast trainer Tom Button is hoping that talented two-year-old Jemeldi can once again overcome a wide barrier (16) when he resumes in Saturday's Listed Dalrello Stakes (1000m) at Eagle Farm.
Jemeldi, a winner of two of his three starts, was last seen when running third in the Group 3 Skyline Stakes (1200m) at Randwick in the lead-up to the Golden Slipper.
The son of Winning Rupert is no stranger to wide gates though, jumping from the outside alley in his second career start at Doomben before recording a dominant three-length victory, so Button is hoping for more of the same fortune on Saturday.
“I just finished work for the morning, came home, looked at the barriers – he's jumping from the airport,” Button said.
“I'm not sure whether he's ever drawn an alley, maybe in his first start. He drew the outside at Doomben, he drew the outside at Randwick. He'll be used to it.
“It's obviously not ideal, but we've got Brad Stewart on; he's the best in the business at trying to find a position.”
In just his three starts, Jemeldi has won over $70,000 in prizemoney and he will look to add to that over the coming weeks.
While Button doesn't think his talented youngster will see out the 1600m of the Group 1 J.J. Atkins, he is hoping to see him contest some races along the way, with the Group 2 Champagne Classic (1200m) likely to be the horse's next assignment.
“Unlikely he goes to the J.J., I just don't think he'll run it,” the trainer said.
“We'll run here and then two weeks later there's a Group 2 race at Doomben and then we'll see how he goes there. If we think we might get the 1400m we might head that way (BRC Sires' Produce Stakes), but I'll doubt he will be going to 1600m.”
One horse in Button's stable who might be thrown into the deep end of a J.J. Atkins is Four Mile Lane, who was an eye-catching runner-up to Green Shadows on April 16 at Eagle Farm.
The colt by Pride Of Dubai will race on Monday at Ipswich in a 1350m 2YO Handicap, where Button expects him to take plenty of beating.
“I was happy to see him back to producing what he can do after a pretty sub-standard run the start before,” Button said.
“He did a lot wrong and it was good to see him bounce back and race well at Eagle Farm. If goes there (Ipswich) with that sort of form, I think he'll be quite hard to beat on Monday.
“He's probably got to really stamp himself, but he might be a J.J. Atkins horse. I definitely think he's a miler, maybe a mile plus, but we'll look for the best lead ups to go into that. We'll race Monday and then look for a lead up to the J.J. from there – if his form suggests that we want to have a crack, then we might have a crack.”