Glamour mare Atlantic Jewel will take her place in the Group 1 Memsie Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield on Saturday, despite earlier fears that she would be pulled out of the race due to fears about the state of the track.
Atlantic Jewel is confirmed to return to Caulfield for the first time since her victory in the 2011 Thousand Guineas. Photo by: Taron Clarke
Trainer Mark Kavanagh and owners Coolmore Stud were worried that damage may be caused to the Caulfield track before the start of the Memsie Stakes, which will be run as the last race of the day, with capacity fields expected for every event on the eight race card.
Kavanagh is now content that the track won’t do any harm to the undefeated daughter of Fastnet Rock and after deliberating with the Coolmore Team has decided to press forward to the recently upgraded Group 1 event.
“They will put six milimetres of water on during the week and another five milimetres on Friday,” Kavanagh told The Herald Sun.
“So when we arrive at the track it will be Dead 4 and by the time the race comes around it will be a Good 3.
“I have the utmost confidence in Jason Kerr (Caulfield Track Manager) and the way he presents the track.”
Atlantic Jewel will be making her first appearance at the races since suffering a career-threatening tendon injury in the lead-up to the 2012 Spring Racing Carnival.
Despite being away from the track for over sixteen months the undefeated five-year-old is expected to start the Memsie Stakes as an odds-on favourite after reportedly breaking thirty-five seconds for her final 600 metres in a piece of work conducted at Flemington this morning.
