Tardis travelling on time for spring

GEELONG trainer Heath Conners is hopeful of securing a city win with progressive galloper Tardis this preparation.

But Conners won’t risk the three-year-old filly if she doesn’t pull up well from Thursday night’s victory at Pakenham with the oncourse trainer hoping for a big spring from his speedster.

“Ideally we want to keep her in. We need to win a Wednesday or a Saturday race so that when she comes back in the spring as a fouryear-old mare her rating is up to the 70 class,” Conners said.

“You know then you’re more a chance of getting a run in a good race. If her rating is too low, you come back for the spring and you keep trying to get runs but you never get a run in a good race.

“She might have been feeling herself the last little bit (at Pakenham), but I won’t know for the next couple of days. She walked out this morning, her legs were good.

“We will let her get over this run.

“We are not in a rush because there’s a lot of time between now and spring.

“If it means she doesn’t run for three weeks then that’s fine because she races well fresh anyway.”

Conners said it would be ideal for Tardis to run at Caulfield or Flemington so she got some experience racing there before the spring.

Meanwhile, Conners is hopeful of targeting the rich Adelaide staying races for three-year-olds in May with Bemboka Queen. The filly had her second win at just her sixth start, saluting over 2227m at Sale on Tuesday. Conners said the Group 1 $500,000 Australasian Oaks (2000m) and the Group 3 $175,000 South Australian Oaks had to be on the agenda for the progressive stayer.

Conners last won the Australasian Oaks in 2012 with Invest.

“She’s tough, that’s her biggest thing,” he said.