Suavito Building Well Towards Spring

Champion jockey Damien Oliver is excited to reignite his affiliation with Suavito through the forthcoming Spring Carnival, after partnering the multiple Group 1 winner in a strong piece of work at Flemington on Friday.

Two-time Group 1 winner Suavito is building well towards her 2016 Spring Carnival campaign. Photo: Adrienne Bicknell

Two-time Group 1 winner Suavito is building well towards her 2016 Spring Carnival campaign. Photo: Adrienne Bicknell

Oliver has partnered Suvaito ten times through her impressive twenty-two start career so far; peaking when he guided the mare to her first win at the highest level in the 2015 edition of the Group 1 Futurity Stakes (1400m).

Having not returned to her saddle since another impressive win in the Group 2 Blamey Stakes (1600m) a fortnight after their win in the 2015 Futurity Stakes, Oliver told Racing Ahead the daughter of Thorn Park is showing all the right signs leading into the 2016 Spring Carnival.

“She trialled well,” Oliver said.

“It was her first trial back, she just had an easy comfortable kind of trial – she finished, I think, third just a few lengths off them – but she seems to have come back really well.”

Trainer Nigel Blackiston is also pleased with what he has seen from the mare so far, and revealed she has grown in sized and maturity since her recent Autumn Carnival campaign.

“I’m very happy with her, she’s got bigger and stronger,” Blackiston said from Flemington on Friday morning.

“I have to say, at home she is a lot more relaxed than she’s been in the past, which I hope is a good thing.

“She’ll be at the jump-outs here on the course proper in two weeks, so she can have a more solid trial then.”

Returning to the paddock in 2015 after placing seventh in the featured Group 1 Doncaster Mile (1600m) during The Championships, Suavito was rated an outsider in the Group 1 CF Orr Stakes (1400m) first-up this year but mustered a typically scintillating turn of foot to claim a second win at the highest level.

Progressing to third in her defence of the Futurity Stakes, Suavito failed to handle the late going when ninth in the Group 1 Australian Cup (2000m) and has not been seen at the races since finishing eleventh in the Group 1 Queen Of The Turf Stakes (1600m) on April 9th.

Blackiston has underlined the Group 2 PB Lawrence Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield on August 13th as the likely first target for Suavito in spring.

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Jared Timms

Jared graduated with a journalism degree in 2011. He is a keen sports fan and has enjoyed many accolades for his lively writing style and comprehensive coverage of major sporting events and horse racing. Today, you can find Jared cheering on his beloved Manchester City with a beer in hand.