Richard Jolly is confident the decision to bypass last week’s Group 1 Manikato Stakes will give Kemalpasa every chance of a third successive Group 2 Linlithgow Stakes at Flemington on Saturday.
Kemalpasa has never missed a place in four Flemington starts, he’s finished third in the Group 2 Gilgai Stakes twice, while defeating Order Of Command to win the past two editions of the Linlithgow on Derby Day.
“He had a gallop this morning and all is good,’’ Jolly said.
“We’ve just kept him ticking over the last few weeks, he’s been at peak fitness, so it’s been about maintaining him,’’ he said.
Jolly said watching the stop start tempo in last week’s Manikato helped justify the decision to head towards the $300,000 feature down the Flemington straight.
“We know he goes well at Flemington, and if you don’t draw the perfect gate at Moonee Valley it can game over pretty early,’’ Jolly said.
“Watching that race (the Manikato) last week I was glad we didn’t run him. They burnt early, the winner got to the front and then stacked them up before skipping away.
“You need a lot of luck around the Valley in a race like that. We thought we’d take the percentages out of it and go to a track where he races so well,’’ he said.
The stable also bypassed the Manikato with Dexelation who scored a brilliant win at Moonee Valley on Cox Plate Day.
“Last prep he raced well with just no luck,’’ Jolly said.
“He had a month off and I treated his first-up run like a trial, he was actually going to trial that week, but I thought I may as well run him in the 1000m race and earn prizemoney and he jumped out of the ground.
“He really likes those fast run races and that was no different on Saturday,’’ he said.
Dexelation will now head to Cranbourne for the $150,000 Listed Apache Cat Classic over the 1000m on November 13.
