Group Two performer Butter Chicken (NZ) (Savabeel) will be out for a serving of stakes success when she lines-up at Caulfield on Wednesday.
The daughter of Savabeel will contest the Gr.3 Ladies Day Vase (1600m) at just her sixth start, having already finished runner-up in the Gr.2 Autumn Classic (1800m) at the Melbourne track in February.
Trainer Grahame Begg was pleased with the four-year-old’s first-up eighth placing in the Gr.2 Let’s Elope Stakes (1400m) at Flemington last month before she found the track a bit too firm when ninth in the Gr.2 Stocks Stakes (1600m) at Moonee Valley.
She pulled-up lame after the race but Begg said she has fully recovered and is spot-on ahead of her Wednesday test where he hopes she will meet more forgiving ground.
“I want to make sure the ground is right for her,” Begg said. “It was pretty firm on Saturday, and I know there is rain forecast.
“She didn’t get around The Valley and the track was so firm, and she pulled up only fair after that run.
“We think she’s going well, and her runs have been better than they look on paper, but she just needs a bit of juice in the ground.”
Butter Chicken was purchased by bloodstock agent Dean Hawthorne out of Pencarrow Stud’s 2019 New Zealand Bloodstock Book 1 Yearling Sale draft for $800,000.