Trainer Adam Trinder is cautiously optimistic his stable star Mystic Journey is on the mend and will compete in Melbourne next month ahead of her title defence in the All-Star Mile.
Trinder informed Racing Victoria stewards on Wednesday that the inaugural All-Star Mile winner has a soft tissue infection in the left front limb and would miss several days of trackwork.
“She presented with a lameness on Tuesday morning and inflammation on a near fore limb so we just backed off (her work),” Trinder told RSN 927’s Racing Pulse on Thursday.
“She’s back walking at the moment and is on generic antibiotics which have settled her down really quickly.
“She was lovely and even in her action this morning so we’re getting on top of it quickly. It was just a little setback which has been untimely obviously.
“The veterinary team was onto it really quickly. Hopefully we’ve nipped it in the bud.”
Trinder describes Mystic Journey as a ‘clean-winded’ mare and is contemplating the prospect of the four-year-old racing second-up in the All-Star Mile at Caulfield on March 14 after resuming in the G1 Futurity Stakes (1400m) at the same venue on February 22.
“I would suggest at this early stage, without getting ahead of ourselves, that would be the plan,” Trinder said.
“It would be similar to her last preparation where she kicked off there (at Caulfield) over 1400 metres in the P.B. Lawrence (Stakes) and won and then went straight to the mile in the Makybe Diva and obviously ran second but still performed really well.
“We’ve all seen her fresh record is fantastic and we don’t race her too often.”
Mystic Journey, who was purchased for $11,000 as a yearling, has won more than $3.7m and ended her spring carnival with fifth-placed finishes in the G1 TAB Turnbull Stakes (2000m) and G1 Ladbrokes Cox Plate (2040m) in October.
The daughter of Needs Further is unbeaten from two attempts at Caulfield, both over 1400 metres in the 2018 Listed Jim Moloney Stakes and 2019 G2 P.B. Lawrence Stakes.
– racing.com
