After winning the Group 1 Caulfield Cup Southern Speed has effectively weighted herself out of the majority of handicap races over the autumn.

The mare will now be almost exclusively restricted to weight for age races as connections choose to push on with her racing career.

They could very easily have pulled the pin and cashed in on her huge broodmare value but while she’s racing well they’ve made the call to just go with it.

It’s exactly what trainer Leon Macdonald wanted to hear as he presses on in the search of a second Group 1 victory.

Southern Speed has spent the last three weeks spelling at Fulmen Park in Moorooduc and is very close to being brought back into work at Morphettville.

“She’ll come back to Adelaide next week. She’s done very well,” Macdonald said.

He says her main aim for the autumn will be the Group 1 Australian Cup in Melbourne.

Assuming she’s racing well through there it will then be up to Sydney for the Ranvet Stakes and The BMW.

Southern Speed is yet to win under weight for age conditions but she showed some promising signs in good company over the spring.

She was second to Lion Tamer in the Underwood Stakes and a fast finishing fourth to Glass Harmonium in the Mackinnon.

“That was a really good run. She was just a bit dour after winning the Caulfield Cup,” Macdonald said.

She will be eased back into competition at the end of January when she runs over 1400m in the Listed John Dillion Stakes.

From there she’ll head to Caulfield for the CF Orr Stakes and the St George Stakes ahead of the Australian Cup at Flemington on March 10.