Group 1 winning sprinter Vega Magic will miss the Memsie Stakes and will instead kick off his 2019 Spring Carnival campaign in the Group 3 $160,000 The Heath 1100 Stakes (1100m) at Caulfield on August 31.
Vega Magic, above, will kick off his 2019 Spring Carnival campaign in The Heath at Caulfield. Photo by Ultimate Racing Photos.
The Lindsay Park Team of David and Ben Hayes and Tom Dabernig has originally penciled in the Group 3 $160,000 Aurie’s Star Handicap (1200m) at Flemington on Saturday for Vega Magic but the prospect of a rain affected track has forced them to change their plans.
The Group 1 $1m New Zealand Bloodstock Memsie Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield on the same day as The Heath is now off the radar for Vega Magic who won the race in 2017 as well as finishing fourth behind Humidor last year.
“I think there’s rain predicted all week and we don’t want to run him on a wet track,” Ben Hayes told AAP.
“In the Regal Roller Stakes (on Saturday week) he gets 63 kilos so we probably don’t want to run him in that as well.
“Running first-up in the Memsie would probably be a bit hard. There’s a race called The Heath on the same day at that is 1100 metres and set weights plus penalties.
“So at the moment I think that’s the race we’re going to target with him.
“And it gives us a little bit more time and we can get a bit more work into him and have him a bit more forward. But there’s nothing wrong with him. It’s just the wet track.”
The Lindsay Park Team will still be represented in the Aurie’s Star Handicap with So Si Bon and Seaburge among the twenty nominations.
Both Lindsay Park gallopers are coming off a break with Seaburge not having started since finishing fourteenth in the Listed $150,000 Golden Mile (1600m) at Bendigo on March 30 while So Si Bon last appearance was a last of twenty in the Group 1 $3m The Star Doncaster Mile (1600m) at Randwick on Day One of The Championships on April 6.
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