Group 2 Tulloch Stakes (2000m) winner Wymark hasn’t been since the last Autumn, with trainer Michael Freedman happy to bypass the Spring with the now four-year-old gelding.
Instead, Wymark, who was bought by OTI racing late last year, will resume in a benchmark 88 over 1300m at Rosehill, a distance Freedman acknowledges will be on the sharp side.
“I think he’ll need a run or two and get up in distance to sort of find his groove. But he’s certainly ready to go,” Freedman said.
“He’s had a couple of trials now, so he’s sort of ready to go to the races and then we have the option of waiting and running him in the Carrington 1400 (metres) the following Saturday.”
Fitted with two trials, the latest with James McDonald aboard at Canterbury, Freedman is happier with Wymark this time around after opting to miss the Spring following a very busy Autumn campaign, which culminated in a seventh placing in the Group 1 Australian Derby (2400m).
“For a mile, two thousand metre horse, I thought he trialled nicely over the 900 (metres). We sort of just got him back in at the start of spring, and he just wasn’t really doing it for me,” Freedman said.
“He’d had a very, very busy autumn, so we just decided to stop and give him the whole spring off. But he had a really good three-month spell, before sort of coming in. He’s had a nice sort of steady build-up.”
Options are open for the son of Savabeel, who holds an official handicap rating of 88, and Freedman said he’s not sure what Wymark’s best distance will turn out to be.
“I just want too see how they sort of return to the races and have a look at them and then make some plans from there. There’s obviously plenty of options through the autumn if he comes up well for those sort of mile, 2000 metre type horses but I’m keeping a pretty open mind at this stage,” Freedman said.
“It (2400m) is an option. I mean, he only ran in the Derby, it was his eighth run for the campaign, and he was a pretty tired horse by then so I don’t think it was that sort of definitive whether he can run a mile and a half, that race. So if he looked like he could give another crack at it, we’ll certainly do that.”
Wymark is a $19 chance for Saturday’s race with apprentice Zac Wadick booked to ride from barrier 13 of 13.