Sunlight may take on older sprinters
TRAINER Tony McEvoy is seriously considering targeting Magic Millions 2YO Classic winner Sunlight at feature sprints against older horses in the early spring.
Sunlight is on track to kick off her campaign in the Listed Lightning Stakes (1050m) for two and three-year-olds at Morphettville where she is likely to clash with the Darren Weir-trained Nature Strip.
“She’s just got to get through another piece of work tomorrow morning and please us and she’ll be running on Saturday,” McEvoy said.
“She’s very bright and very well.”
Sunlight’s first-up performance will prove telling regarding her next steps leading into the spring because McEvoy has the Group 2 McEwen Stakes (1000m) and Group 1 Moir Stakes (1000m) at Moonee Valley, both weight-for-age races, in mind for the brilliant filly in September.
“I’m thinking that she might go to the McEwen and the Moir. She might take on the older horses,” McEvoy said.
“She’s fast and she appears like she might have improved a bit so I thought we might get aggressive and go against the sprinters and give her a chance at an early Group 1 target.
“That would be the thinking, so Saturday’s race will tell me a lot about that.”
The McEwen Stakes is on September 8 while the Moir Stakes is on September 28.
Sunlight has won five of her seven starts in her juvenile season including the Magic Millions at the Gold Coast in January and two stakes races in Sydney.
She was third in the Golden Slipper in March at her most recent start before a break.
The Zoustar filly won a barrier trial at Morphettville by 4½ lengths last week.