Andrew Forsman has been associated with many Derby winners in his time as travelling foreman for Murray Baker and when in a training partnership with the New Zealand conditioner.
It was 12 years ago that Forsman was in Melbourne overseeing the preparation of Lion Tamer who won the Group 1 Victoria Derby (2500m) for Baker.
Now training in his own right, Forsman has been single minded in his bid to win Saturday’s Classic for three-year-olds with Mr Maestro.
The whole preparation has been based out of Flemington and kicked off at Sandown in August, has steadily increased to where Mr Maestro has now won his past three starts, twice over 1800m at Flemington before defeating a small field in the Group 3 Caulfield Classic (2000m) on October 15.
On Saturday Mr Maestro must overcome the extreme outside barrier if he is to give Forsman his second Group 1 win and his first on Australian soil.
Despite the draw, Forsman said he was looking forward to Saturday’s race and tackling the 2500m trip for the first time.
“All the hard work is done, it’s just a matter of being right for the day and I think we’ve done that,” Forsman said.
“It’s the race we’ve brought him over for, but you never quite know until the day and see them run that extreme trip.
“They’ve all been good, him and the opposition, at 2000 metres but they have to go that extra 500 metres and I’ve seen that trip up horses before.”
Forsman said Mr Maestro’s best asset was his tractability which will be a big factor in overcoming Saturday’s extreme draw.
But he also noted the colt’s good turn of foot which he hopes will still be evident at the end of 2500m.
What Forsman did not want to see was the narrow, but strong, wins of Sharp ‘N’ Smart and Berkeley Square in their respective races in Sydney and Melbourne last weekend.
“It’s a strong Derby, one of the strongest I’ve seen for the last few years,” Forsman said.
“We’ve met Sharp ‘N’ Sound once and he gave us a bit of a towel up that day, but I would like to think that we have improved a fair bit.
“He’s racing really well, but there’s three or four in the race that are going to be really competitive.”
Mr Maestro sits on the third line of betting with TAB at $6 behind Berkeley Square ($3.40) and Sharp ‘N’ Smart ($3.50) in latest markets.