Co-trainer Troy Corstens has confirmed that Commanding Jewel is fully fit for her return to racing in the 2014 Cockram Stakes at Caulfield this Saturday, despite a tweet from Racing Victoriaindicating that the classy mare had suffered another injury.
Commanding Jewel has not been seen at the races since she took out the 2014 Let's Elope Stakes. Photo by: Race Horse Photos Australia
The Racing Victoria Stewards Twitter account said yesterday that Commanding Jewel had severed her off front foot and was sore behind, but Corstens told Sky Racing HQ that the daughter of Commands suffered those injuries last year and had fully recovered from both setbacks.
“She had a bad hamstring injury last preparation and that is what turned her out and then she had a paddock accident where she had a bad laceration to the foot,” Corstens said.
“Obviously information is king, but is this case it was probably too much.
“It gave me a little bit of a queasy stomach when I first read the tweet and I thought gee has something happened between five o’clock and seven o’clock that I haven’t been made aware of.
“I assured everyone pretty quickly that she is 100% and spot-on.”
Commanding Jewel was restricted to just two race starts during the 2013 Spring Racing Carnival and she has not been seen at the races since she took out the Group 2 Let’s Elope Stakes (1400m) at Flemington on September 7.
Leon Corstens toyed with the idea of taking Commanding Jewel to Queensland for the 2014 Brisbane Winter Racing Carnival, but he opted to save the five-year-old for a spring preparation and Troy Corstens said that his star mare had had a perfect preparation heading into the Group 3 Cockram Stakes (1200m) this weekend.
“It has been amazing,” Corstens said.
“She has come along beautifully and everything has gone really well.
“It just goes to show sometimes that if you let these horses mature, we were forced to give her such a long break and it has really helped her.
“Hopefully she can race right through this year and well into next year.”
Commanding Jewel is currently available at 2014 Cockram Stakes odds of $7.50, while Gregers ($2.80) remains a clear favourite in the betting market for the Group 3 event from A Time For Julia ($4.80) and Real Surreal ($6).
Leon and Troy Corstens are chasing their first win at Group level since they formed a training partnership at the start of the 2014/2015 racing season.
