Magicool will return to the races in the 2015 Memsie Stakes, but trainer Mark Kavanagh is not expecting a great deal from the Queensland Derby winner in the Group 1 event at Caulfield on Saturday.
Magicool will return to the races for the first time since he scored an impressive win in the 2015 Queensland Derby. Photo by: Daniel Costello
Magicool was sent to the spelling paddock after he recorded a tough win in the Group 1 Queensland Derby (2200m) at Doomben on June 6, but he has now been back in work for well over a month and performed well in two recent jump outs.
Kavanagh told Sky Racing HQ that he is happy with the way that Magicool has come up for his 2015 Spring Racing Carnival campaign, but he is confident that the Fastnet Rock gelding will take plenty of improvement out of his first-up run in the 2015 Memsie Stakes.
“He has come back alright,” Kavanagh said.
“You would think that he would need it a bit longer on Saturday and he is still a little bit round.
“He will take a bit of improvement out of it.
“This isn’t his grand final.
“His best form has been over 1800 or better and the only race he has won below that was a maiden.
“I would think that you will see him finishing off the race and being quite happy with him doing that.”
Magicool has been included in the nominations for the Group 1 Caulfield Cup (2400m) and Group 1 Cox Plate (2040m) and will also be entered for the Group 1 Melbourne Cup (3200m), but Kavanagh is not sure whether the four-year-old will make it to ‘the race that stops a nation’ and will take it one step at a time with the Group 1 winner this preparation.
“I don’t know about that and we just have to wait and see,” Kavanagh said when asked if the Melbourne Cup was Magicool’s main aim.
“There is a race somewhere in the spring for him and he is qualified for the Melbourne Cup and has passed the first ballot clause, but I will just wait and see and let the horse do the talking there.”
Magicool is currently available at 2015 Melbourne Cup odds of $81 with Ladbrokes and he is priced at $51 to take out the Caulfield Cup.
Kavanagh is chasing his second win in the Memsie Stakes after taking out the 2013 edition of the race with glamour mare Atlantic Jewel.
