Queensland raider Antino will kick off his spring campaign in the Group 1 Memsie Stakes (1400m) against the likes of Pride Of Jenni and Mr Brightside at Caulfield on Saturday afternoon.
The Tony Gollan-trained six-year-old was put through his gears in a recent trial at Cranbourne on August 19 in preparation for his return, with Gollan confirming the son of Redwood has been ticking over nicely since heading to Victoria.
“He’s settled in really well,” said Gollan, speaking with Racing.com.
“We’re stabled out of Cranbourne this time with Ciaron Maher, and the horse has settled in great to the training centre down there, his jump-out was good, I had a look at him on Saturday morning and thought he looked terrific.
“He’s improved off that jump-out, he’ll do a bit of work at Caulfield tomorrow (Tuesday) and make his way back there on Saturday.
“He’s got a good overall record and the times he’s been beaten a lot of them you can make a fair few excuses for him as well, he was pretty unlucky a couple times. I thought first-up in this race at 1400m much more suitable than what we saw in the 1200’s at Eagle Farm.
Antino has firmed from $9.00 to $6.00 with horse racing bookmakers for the Group 1 Memsie Stakes on Saturday, with Gollan likely to chase further Group 1 success as the spring rolls on.
“Obviously this is a steep race, plenty of nice horses in there, particularly Mr Brightside and Pride Of Jenni.
“Let’s just see where he sits in the peaking order.
“I’ve got a pretty open mind as to where we may go with him, I’ll just let his form tell me where we should go.”
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