Trainer Paul Messara is happy with Weatherly ahead of the 2016 Talindert Stakes, but he admits that the promising colt will go into the Listed event very fresh.
Craig Williams has been booked to ride Weatherly in the 2016 Talindert Stakes at Flemington this weekend. Photo by: Ultimate Racing Photos
Weatherly was well-backed when he made his racing debut in the Listed Blue Diamond Preview (1000m) at Caulfield on Australia Day, but he missed the start and was never able to get into the race before he was scratched from the Group 3 Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Prelude (1100m) at the same venue on February 13 due to a minor level of mucus.
Messara said that Weatherly had taken no long term harm from the minor problem and would go into the Talindert Stakes without any issues, but he told Racing Ahead that he had been easy on the Beneteau colt in the past week and he is a touch on the fresh side.
“He is going fine,” Messara said.
“We had a little setback last week leading into the Prelude, so we were forced to wait a week, but the horse appears to be in pretty good shape now.
“He is coming into the race very fresh and I am looking at it at a bit of a first-up run because he hasn’t had the ideal lead-up into it.
“We are not heading into the race with anything that is possibly going to affect his performance.”
Weatherly was very slow out of the gates in the Talindert Stakes, but Messara said that was out of character for the Beneteau colt and he is confident that a slow start will not be an issue for the two-year-old in the Talindert Stakes.
“He had taken benefit from that first-up run and we could him back to the gates to give him a little jump out to give him some confidence because he stumbled at the start in the Preview,” Messara said.
“I wanted to make sure that he went into the next race with confidence because he had never missed it before and it was one of those one off occasions.”
Messara is highly unlikely to back-up in the Group 1 Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m) next weekend, but he could still head to Sydney for their Autumn Racing Carnival.
Weatherly is currently available at 2016 Talindert Stakes odds of $3.80 with Ladbrokes and he is on the second line of betting behind Peter Moody-trained Overstep ($3.40).
