European hopes rest on track conditions

TERRY Henderson says his European-bred stayers will be placed according to track conditions after Lord Fandango “jarred up a bit” at Caulfield last weekend.

The six-year-old is expected to accept for Wednesday’s Geelong Cup, along with French horse Casterton, who has joined Chris Waller’s stable. But Henderson, director at OTI Racing, said his trainers would have an eye on the weather forecasts, with both horses needing give in the track in order to run to their best.

“We’re pretty paranoid with these European horses about the firmness of the ground,” Henderson told the Geelong Advertiser.

“It’s a huge attraction to have these Europeans start if we know we’re going to get good ground. We don’t need it wet, we just need the sting out of it and we’re not getting that at Caulfield at the moment.”

Casterton shapes as the unknown but progressive stayer, boasting three wins and five placings from 13 starts overseas.

If the Geelong surface shapes as too firm, the team will weigh up runs in the Moonee Valley Cup on Friday night or the Bendigo Cup Wednesday week where more rain is likely.

“He would need probably at least a 1kg penalty to work his way into the Melbourne Cup as it stands, and that could get tougher or easier depending on how many fall out of the race,” Henderson said.

“He’s a serious horse. He does like the sting out of the track so he’ll be very influenced by what the track is like come acceptance time.

“If it seems drier for the end of the week, we know Moonee Valley can get pretty dry at the moment, so we’d be making a decision on how we see the tracks.

“We could go to the Lexus but I don’t think we want to do that. He’s not the sort of horse that’s backed up in the past; the French don’t sort of do that.”

Meanwhile Lord Fandango, who ran sixth in the Herbert Power, will need to recover in time about for Wednesday if he is to run.

“It really just depends how he comes up in the next week because he jarred up a bit after the race (last) Saturday,” Henderson said.

OTI Racing has also nominated last start Hamilton Cup winner Master Zephyr for Wednesday.

Fields and barriers will be released this morning.