Mr Brightside’s first four runs this autumn have all but been locked in, with Lindsay Park’s superstar galloper to ramp up his preparations on Friday morning.
The six-year-old will have his first public hit-out at Flemington over 800m, before an official trial at Geelong later this month, ahead of a first-up tilt at the Group 1 C.F. Orr Stakes (1400m) on February 10.
“He’ll kick off in the C.F. Orr, then the Futurity (Stakes), All-Star Mile and then we’re looking at an Australian Cup and from there comes the fork in the road, but the first four runs are pretty much a lock,” co-trainer JD Hayes said.
“It’s his first jumpout so he’ll just bowl around and have a nice fitness blowout and then he’ll probably trial at Geelong on the 30th.
“We’ve just been ticking him over at home, he’s been getting out in the day paddocks, he’s been loving life, we’ve had really good weather up here at the farm (Euroa) and he’s been the beneficiary of that.
“He looks magnificent so we’re looking forward to seeing him come through these couple of trials leading up to the first-up run.”
The winner of last year’s All-Star Mile will likely head to Sydney following his run in the 2000-metre G1 Australian Cup but won’t be chasing a third-successive G1 Doncaster Mile at this stage.
“The Queen Elizabeth (2000m) is a very enticing race with the prizemoney on offer, it does look the logical option but we’ll just see how he’s going and how he’s handling the preparation,” Hayes said.
– racing.com
