Cummings not giving up Caulfield Cup hope with Colette 

Godolphin and James Cummings have not given up hope of starting Colette in the Caulfield Cup.

Colette was scratched from the Group 1 Turnbull Stakes (2000m) at Flemington last Saturday with a foot abscess and was entered, but did not accept, for the Group 1 Might And Power (2000m) at Caulfield on Saturday.

Cummings said the Melbourne stable would continue to monitor Colette in the lead-up to the Group 1 Caulfield Cup (2400m) on October 16 and said the mare may run at Caulfield on Wednesday.

The Group 3 Coongy Cup (2000m) is the most likely option for Colette should Cummings decide to run her before the Caulfield Cup three days later.

“She’s vastly improved from last Friday when unfortunately, she didn’t quite have the benefit of having her abscess burst,” Cummings told RSN.

“It probably took, in my mind, too many days for that to turn around for us to accept again and have her right, so we elected to avoid racing in the Might And Power.

“It will be up to us now how much fitness she will need and whether she will be capable of being an acceptor in the Caulfield Cup next week.

“I’m considering nominating her for a couple of races next Wednesday, the more obvious of the two would be the Coongy.

“We’ll see how she does in the next few days before we decide whether to accept in the first instance and whether to run.”

Colette, a Group 1 Australian Oaks winner as a three-year-old, was on the third line of betting in the Turnbull Stakes before her scratching last week.

Having missed both the Turnbull Stakes and Saturday’s Might And Power, Colette has drifted from $15 to $26 with TAB in Caulfield Cup betting.

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