Lindsay Park’s German import Poetic Dream is among the nominations for the Group 3 $150,000 Aurie’s Star Handicap (1200m) at Flemington on Saturday.

Voodoo Lad, above, is among the nominations for the 2018 Aurie’s Star Handicap at Flemington. Photo by Ultimate Racing Photos.

Poetic Dream is one of ten horses nominated for the straight course sprint while the Victoria Racing Club is extending the entry deadline until 10am on Tuesday August 7, 2018.

Poetic Dream has raced once for Lindsay Park co-trainers David and Ben Hayes and Tom Dabernig for a fifth in the Group 3 $150,000 Autumn Handicap (1400m) at Flemington during the 2018 Melbourne Autumn Carnival but showed marked improvement when he won a recent Flemington jump out with the blinkers on.

Hayes gave Poetic Dream another jump out down the Flemington straight last Friday without the blinkers but said he would definitely wear them in the Aurie’s Star Handicap on the weekend.

“He’ll probably race beyond a sprint distance at a mile with no blinkers but in the lead-up to those races I’ll run him in blinkers,” David Hayes told AAP.

“He seems pretty fast in them.”

Hayes is happy to wait and see how Poetic Dream performs under race conditions before mapping out the rest of the 2018 Spring Carnival which could include some Group 1 assignments.

“I don’t want to talk about those races until he’s shown his form in Australia, but it’s very encouraging what we’re seeing,” Hayes said.

Premiership winning trainer Darren Weir has nominated three for the Aurie’s Star Handicap, Camdus, Man From Uncle and Voodoo Lad while trainer Shane Nichols has nominated his Group 1 winning mare I Am A Star.

Nominations for the 2018 Aurie’s Star Handicap