Kermadec will return to the races in the 2016 Canterbury Stakes at Royal Randwick on Saturday and trainer Chris Waller has revealed that the talented entire is further forward than he was when he started his 2015 Spring Racing Carnival campaign.
Kermadec has the chance to claim a third Group 1 victory in the 2016 Canterbury Stakes at Royal Randwick this weekend. Photo by: Steve Hart
Kermadec performed well without winning in both the Group 2 Warwick Stakes (1400m) at Royal Randwick on August 22 and the Group 2 Chelmsford Stakes (1600m) at the same venue on September 5 before he scored an impressive win in the Group 1 George Main Stakes (1600m) third-up, but Waller said at the Sydney Autumn Carnival Launch this morning that Kermadec was ready to run well first-up in the Canterbury Stakes.
“He would be,” Waller said when asked if Kermadec is further forward than he was in the spring.
“12 months ago he was just a boy and he was having his third and fourth starts.
“Now he is a mature horse and it is just so much easier in the autumn to prepare a horse.
“In the early part of the spring, you are getting them ready for a race in August and that means they are galloping in July and we don’t know whether trials are going to be on.
“At least in the autumn, the weather is pretty much the same every day and it has allowed us to prepare them properly.
“He will run well on Saturday, obviously he will improve when he gets to the George Ryder.”
Kermadec stamped himself as one of the best milers in Australia when he took out the Group 1 Doncaster Mile (1600m) and George Main Stakes last year, but he failed to fire when he was stepped up to 2000 metres for the Group 1 Ladbrokes Caulfield Stakes (2000m) and the Group 1 Cox Plate (2040m) during the spring.
Waller confirmed that Kermadec will not race at a distance greater than a mile this preparation, but he revealed that he could elect to bypass the Doncaster Mile with the son of Teofilo and save him for a tilt at the Group 1 All Aged Stakes (1400m) a fortnight later.
“We don’t have a Doncaster locked in and the George Ryder will tell us where we go,” Waller said.
“I won’t step beyond a mile, he might come back to the All Aged Stakes because I do think that he is a sprinter/miler.”
Kermadec is currently available at 2016 Canterbury Stakes odds of $5 with Ladbrokes and he is on the third line of betting behind First Seal ($2.80) and Our Boy Malachi ($2.90).
