Trainer Peter Moody has decided to focus on the feature Flemington sprints for the brilliant I Wish I Win (NZ) (Savabeel), who will kick off his campaign in the Black Caviar Lightning and the Newmarket Handicap.
Moody believes I Wish I Win could be a threat in the Newmarket Handicap but said he would have had to push too hard too early to get him to the All-Star Mile.
The Waikato Stud bred and owned gelding joined Moody’s stables last spring and stamped himself one of Australia’s most promising horses after winning three of his four starts, culminating with his win in the A$10 million Golden Eagle (1500m) at Rosehill.
“Rightly or wrongly, I’m going to run in the Lightning and the Newmarket. He won’t run in the Futurity or All-Star Mile,” Moody said.
“I want to run him in the Newmarket. We know he’s at that level. The Futurity is only two weeks before and I don’t want to go to Futurity and then back to the Newmarket.”
“To have him ready for the All-Star Mile I’ve got to push him too hard. There’s a race every Saturday from the end of February to the end of July. He can have a nice lead-in to his preparation,” he said.
Moody said his horses improved after having a run down the straight, which is why he’s keen to start I Wish I Win in the Gr.1 A$1 million Black Caviar Lightning (1000m) at Flemington on February 18.
The Gr.1 A$1.5 million Newmarket Handicap (1200m) will be run three weeks later on March 11.
“I’m not going to the Lightning thinking he’s going to beat Nature Strip and others, but a nice horse like him can bowl along and pull a few lengths off them over the last 100 metres,” Moody said.
“Most importantly, it will bring him on so he can go to the Newmarket on a dry track with his turn of foot and I’ll find out whether I’m not kidding myself.
“He’ll have a couple of very soft trials at home intermittently with a bit of beach work.”
Moody said the other aspect to his plan is that I Wish I Win was a four-year-old gelding and if he failed to measure up in those feature sprints it wouldn’t affect his value.
“If he fails, there’s no damage because there’s a race every week for him from the end of March and we can take him to Sydney and run him in races such as the Canterbury Stakes, the George Ryder and the Doncaster.”
Moody said I Wish I Win, Chains Of Lightning and Boogie Dancer would all have a jump-out on Tuesday at Pakenham.
