Trainer John McArdle from Mornington is already setting his sights on a Group 1 assault early in the season, with a significant part of his strategy focused on Queensland.
The gelding Regal Zeus is en route to the Listed Eye Liner Stakes (1350m) at Ipswich this Saturday, marking the first of two planned runs in Queensland.
McArdle intends to return to Melbourne at the start of the new racing season to contest the Group 1 Memsie Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield in late August.
“I’m 99 per cent sure we’ll run in the Eye Liner and then the Glasshouse and if everything went according to plan then we would be the fit horse leading into the Memsie,” McArdle stated. “That was the plan and the reason for heading up there was because it is a 61-kilo maximum topweight off a 54-kilo minimum, so he wouldn’t be getting as badly weighted up there as he would be in Victoria.”
The Listed Glasshouse Handicap (1400m) is scheduled for the Sunshine Coast on July 4, with Regal Zeus carrying 60.5kg for his Ipswich engagement.
Regal Zeus enters Saturday’s race having had only a single trial, where he finished second over 1200m at Sandown on May 23.
This trial took place over the new 1200m distance on the Hillside course at Sandown, and McArdle aimed to provide the gelding with a solid workout on a suitable grass surface.
“He was probably ready for a half-mile trial, but he had the1200-metre trial, and him being him, he doesn’t do anything softly,” McArdle explained. “It was a stronger trial than what we expected, but what it meant was that we didn’t have to trial him again.”
He then had a gallop on the course proper prior to the Mornington meeting last week before travelling north the following day.
“The travel has tightened him up again and he hasn’t left an oat since he’s been up there. He’s his bright usual self.”
The Eye Liner Stakes is one of three Stakes races on Saturday’s card, which also features the Listed Ipswich Cup (2150m) and the Listed Gai Waterhouse Classic (1200m).
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