Trainer in no rush to lock in 3YO targets

Cody Cole is happy to play a waiting game with Landlock before confirming the three-year-old’s main goals for the season.

The Matamata trainer has circled the Listed Sir Colin Meads Trophy (1200m) on September 6 as the talented son of Merchant Navy’s resuming run and will firm up plans after the Ellerslie race.

Landlock performed well in top company last term with a debut win and runner-up finishes in the Gr.1 Sistema Stakes (1200m) and Gr.2 Wakefield Challenge Stakes (1100m).

In between times, he was fifth in the $1 million Karaka Millions 2YO (1200m) and signed off when third and subsequently relegated to fourth in the Gr.1 Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes (1400m).

“We haven’t really made a firm plan with him, you probably wouldn’t say he really ran the 1400m out strongly in the Sires, but he was at the end of his preparation,” Cole said.

“He probably wasn’t at his best, but it was still a very good run. I would say as a three-year-old he’s going to get up to a mile the way the has finished his races off.

“We’ll wait and see how he performs first-up before we make a plan for him.”

A $20,000 Karaka buy out of Woburn Farm’s draft, Landlock will further his preparation later this week.

“He will go for a gallop on Thursday at Ellerslie and that will top him off nicely to kick off in the Sir Colin Meads,” Cole said.

“He really likes Ellerslie and ran well in the Millions and in the Group One.

“He seems to have come up well and had a jump-out at Matamata last week and went to Taupo a couple of weeks before that for an outing and a gallop.”

Stablemate Navigator will also stretch his legs at Ellerslie ahead of his first-up run there in the Gr.1 Proisir Plate (1400m).

“He also jumped out last week with Landlock, he’s not a horse you can back up, so we bypassed the Foxbridge (Gr.2, 1200m),” Cole said.

“He’s really good fresh and has won first-up over 1400m before, we’ll be leaving the blinkers off him so he doesn’t overdo it and can tend to do that when he gets a bit further than 1200m.”

The chestnut son of El Roca is a four-time winner and finished third behind Grail Seeker in last season’s Gr.1 Telegraph (1200m).

“He’ll run in the Proisir and then we’ll freshen him up for the Rotorua race (Gr.3 Sweynesse Stakes, 1200m) that he ran second in last year,” Cole said.

“There’s the Telegraph again obviously, and we want to see how he goes around Ellerslie.

“He hasn’t done much racing right-handed, he’s only had a few runs and he was a little bit awkward around Tauranga so the more experience the better for him.”