Kushadasi has begun preparations for the 2014 Spring Racing Carnival, but trainer Richard Jolly has revealed that the South Australian Derby winner will not be set for the 2014 Melbourne Cup.
Kushadasi scored a maiden win at Group 1 level in the 2014 South Australian Derby. Photo by: Jenny Barnes
Kushadasi stamped himself as a stayer to watch with a tough win in the Group 1 South Australian Derby (2500m) and Jolly is planning on sending the Choisir gelding to Melbourne for a spring campaign, but he told Racing Ahead this morning that he is unlikely to include the Group 1 winner in the nominations for races like the Melbourne Cup (3200m), Caulfield Cup (2400m) or Cox Plate (2040m).
“I don’t want to bust his boiler this preparation,” Jolly said.
“We will just be guided and we certainly would not be going to the Melbourne Cup or anything like that.
“I just don’t think that he is ready for those kind of strenuous races.
“We will just play it by ear and see how he comes up; there are a lot of second tier races that you can head to.
“The Spring Stakes is going to be too early for him, but I would definitely want to start him off here and I don’t want to go to Melbourne with him until he is up to a mile, where he can be competitive against the better ones.”
While Jolly is keeping his ambitions low with Kushadasi during the 2014 Spring Racing Carnival, he is happy with the condition of the rising four-year-old and believes that he relished the time spent in the spelling paddock following his South Australian Derby win.
Jolly believes that Kushadasi will continue to develop as a horse in the upcoming racing season and he is confident that the gelding can be competitive at Group level in Melbourne this spring.
“He had a nice spell, I think it was about seven weeks, and I didn’t rush him back,” Jolly said.
“I had a few looks at him when he was out and I decided to bring him back in when he was ready.
“We have exciting times and hopefully we can get him back and get him firing.
“I genuinely think that he will improve as he has always been a bit of an immature horse.
“We haven’t put him on the scales, but to the eye he has probably put on fifty kilos I would say.
“He is the kind of horse that I would be disappointed if he couldn’t go to Melbourne in the spring and certainly be competitive at the main level.”
Kushadasi has scored five wins from his ten race starts to date and has already accumulated almost $450,000 in prizemoney for connections.
