Injury plagued Wealth Princess will line up at Doomben on Saturday for only the second time in almost two years after suffering a serious tendon injury.
The former New Zealand trained mare is now prepared by Darren Weir and the Group 3 $150,000 Glenlogan Park Stakes (1350m) (F&M) will be her second start for the Warrnambool trainer, a race she won two years ago before going amiss.
Wealth Princess’ racing career looked like it had ended when she tore a tendon after a successful Winter Carnival in 2010 and as well as winning the Glenlogan Stakes, ran third to Set For Fame in the Group 2 $200,000 Patinack Farm Dane Ripper Stakes (1400m) and was then runner up to Melito in the Group 1 $500,000 Sky Racing Winter Stakes (1400m), both at Eagle Farm.
The San Luis mare had shown that a Group 1 win wasn’t far off and had also previously finish second at that level in the NZ$160,000 Waikato Sprint (1400m) at Te Rapa in February, 2010.
Wealth Princess has been under Weir’s care for the last four months and if she gets through Saturday’s race in good order will push onto the Group 1 $1m AAMI Stradbroke Handicap (1400m) at Eagle Farm on June 9 and the Group 1 $500,000 Sky Racing Tattersall’s Tiara (1400m) at Eagle Farm on June 23.
At her first run for almost two years and her first for Weir, Wealth Princess was beaten a nose by Second Effort in the Listed $126,000 Midfield Group Wangoon Handicap (1200m) at the Warrnambool Carnival on May 2 on a slow track and the run naturally pleased Weir.
“She was held up for a run last time and she was beaten only a half head so it was a promising effort,” Weir said.
“You always wonder if horses with a serious tendon injury can come back to racing let alone come back and reach their top again.”
Weir will use Saturday’s race to guide him for the remainder of the Carnival and hopefully the six year old mare will get her chance at Group 1 level again.
“Wealth Princess is shaping up well but Saturday will probably tell us a little more of what level she might get to this winter.”
Michael Walker is renewing his association with Wealth Princess after having ridden the mare in Brisbane during the 2010 Carnival, but his chance to ride her was momentarily in jeopardy.
The widely travelled jockey incurred an eight meeting suspension for careless riding at Echuca on Tuesday and was successful in applying for a stay of proceedings and will be able to ride on Saturday with his time out beginning on Tuesday when his appeal will be heard.
Wealth Princess has been installed as the $3.20 favourite for the Glenlogan ahead of the Michael Lakey trained Risk Aversion and John O’Shea’s Bound To Blush at $6.
Parables ($8) from the Peter Snowden stable and Alltherightmoves ($9) out of the Les Kelly yard are the only other runners under double figures.
