Group Three winner Sansom will be looking to kick-off his preparation in style when he contests the Gr.3 Bletchingly Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield on Saturday.
The son of Charm Spirit finished fourth in the race last year and trainer Phillip Stokes is expecting a similar result from the New Zealand-bred gelding first-up.
“He will run well,” Stokes told RSN927. “We haven’t got him wound up for this though, so if he is running top four or five I would be really happy with that heading into the spring.”
Sansom hasn’t raced since his unplaced run in the Gr.3 Shaftesbury Avenue Handicap (1400m) at Flemington in February, with Stokes electing to give him a decent spell ahead of spring racing.
“I am really happy with him,” Stokes said. “We went up to the Gold Coast, brought him back and gave him one run and he just looked plain, so we gave him a good break.
“We put a lot of time into getting him to relax a bit and to switch off a bit more. I would really like to stretch this horse out to a mile in time.
“He has got to take the next step to go to the elite level, but it would be good to head to something like the Toorak (Gr.1, 1600m).”
