D-Day at Riccarton for talented filly
Intention’s future program will be determined by her performance in Saturday’s Listed NZB Canterbury Belle Stakes (1200m).
The daughter of Bivouac has headed south for the Riccarton feature with a return trip for higher honours on the line for the Mike Breslin-trained filly.
“This race has been on the cards since she came back into work with the Gold Trail Stakes (Gr.3, 1200m) moved from Hawke’s Bay to Ellerslie,” Breslin said.
“I decided to give her this trip to Christchurch and it’s a defining race for her as to which direction we take through the spring.
“If she copes with the trip and races well, then she has a good eight weeks before she has to go back down for the 1000 Guineas (Gr.1, 1600m).
“If she doesn’t compete against this field, then the Guineas field is going to be even better.”
Breslin said he can’t fault Intention’s condition and her progress since her unplaced resuming run last month.
“She’s in really good order and she’s trained on nicely since Taupo, the set weights and penalties there meant she had 58.5kg on a very wet track,” he said.
“She’s not a big filly so I was more than happy with her run and on Saturday she’ll get back on to a reasonable surface at set weights.”
Intention showed an abundance of talent during her juvenile preparation, winning the Gr.2 Wakefield Challenge Stakes (1100m), finishing third in the Listed Wellesley Stakes (1100m) and fifth in the Gr.1 Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes (1400m).
Unfortunately, she didn’t help her cause with persistent slow beginnings.
“Jonathan Riddell has since ridden in her in two trials and we think we’ve ironed that out. The other day at Taupo when she jumped out, I thought she had missed the start again, but she had copped a decent bump,” Breslin said.
“She does have to be more professional out of the gates to measure up against what does look to be a boom crop of three-year-old fillies.
“I would just love her to begin well and put herself in the first six without doing any work and then we’ll see how good she is.
“She’s very straight forward at home and the barrier issues came as a total surprise and got compounded as things went on as a two-year-old.”
Breslin is also keen to head south in November with stablemate Crouch, an impressive open handicap sprint winner when he returned from a spell at Otaki.
“I’ve mapped out a plan to get him to the New Zealand Cup (Gr.3, 3200m), although I would be reluctant to run him if it was a hard track,” he said.
“If he continues to race well and the track looks like it will have some give in it, then it would be great to put him on the truck and have a crack at a $450,000 race.
“He’ll run next on Saturday week in the Merial Metric Mile (Gr.3, 1600m) at Trentham.”
Breslin is also expecting a decent performance from Showbastian Coe on the all-weather track in Sunday’s Happy 13th Birthday Gracie Breslin (1200m) at Awapuni.
“He trialled well and he’s been a victim of the races being called off, so he’s been marking time. I’m happy with him and he races well on the poly,” he said.
