Melbourne Cup winning trainer Darren Weir has selected the Listed $120,000 Lord Stakes (1700m) at Caulfield on Boxing Day for the delayed comeback for his talented stayer Signoff.
Signoff is set to resume in the Lord Stakes at Caulfield on Boxing Day. Photo by Sarah Ebbett.
Signoff was scheduled to resume in the $90,000 Building Engineering Trophy (1400m) at Flemington last Saturday, but Weir scratched the six year old after he drew the outside of the ten horse field.
The Authorized gelding has been off the scene with a tendon injury and hasn’t been to the races since running eighth to Silverball in the $80,000 Ross Stevenson Trophy (1600m) on April 11.
Signoff was racing in the best form of his career during the 2014 Melbourne Spring Carnival with a win in the Group 3 $300,000 Lexus Stakes (2500m) at Flemington that secured him a place in the Group 1 $6m Emirates Melbourne Cup (3200m) at Flemington three days later.
Signoff ran a mighty race on the First Tuesday In November and made up plenty of ground in the straight to run fourth to the German stayer Protectionist.
Weir said that Signoff is good and well and is ready to begin another campaign which could include the Adelaide Autumn Carnival.
“He’s in good shape but I just wanted to make sure he’s right as he had a tendon injury,” Weir told AAP.
“There’s no hurry with him but Adelaide is a possibility so he’ll have to kick off pretty soon.”
“Unfortunately he wasn’t able to run in the spring but we’ll hopefully head towards the Adelaide Cup with him and see what happens after that.”
“It was only a very minor injury but he’s a really nice horse so we made sure we took all the precautions necessary and he’s still only a young horse so hopefully he’ll be around for next spring.”
A successful comeback during the Autumn Carnival could see Weir endeavour on another Melbourne Cup campaign with Signoff.
The lightly raced Signoff is a winner of seven of his fifteen starts and showed his staying potential when he started to work his way up through the classes during the Autumn of 2014 with a win over 2400m in a Bendigo Benchmark 84 Handicap followed by a win over 2500m in a BenchMark 90 at Moonee Valley.
From his seven wins and three placings Signoff has earned just over $666,000 for his connections.
