=Young trainer Dominic Sutton has only been training six months but is hoping to be one of the contenders during the Melbourne Spring Carnival.
With five winners to his name from 47 career starters, Sutton is set to start stable favourite Feroce in the Group 3 Guineas Prelude (1400m) at Caulfield on Saturday.
Feroce gave Sutton his first winner when successful at Pakenham in March and followed up the following month to provide the trainer with a city win at Caulfield.
Sutton is still searching for his maiden Stakes success which he hopes will come on Saturday.
Feroce has had one run back from a spell, finishing second last in the Group 3 McNeil Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield last month when ridden by Billy Egan.
Sutton said he was non-the-wiser following the gelding’s outing as he was not let off the bridle.
“Billy said he had a lapful of horse and nowhere to go. He reckons he finishes second or third with clear running,” Sutton said.
“The winner is pretty smart, but he said he had so much horse underneath him going to the line and he felt he would have run top three.
“He’s come on well since. His work has been really good. He’s bright, he’s happy, his coat has come out a bit from that first-up run, so I can’t fault him at the moment.”
Both of Feroce’s wins have been at 1200m and the one time he was tried over 1400m, the gelding finished fourth to Epimeles in the Listed Anzac Day Stakes at Flemington, after which he was spelled.
Sutton hopes after Saturday to head to the Group 1 Caulfield Guineas (1600m) on October 12 but will be guided by Feroce’s performance.
“I’ve always felt that he’s a horse that will get out over further than 1400 metres,” Sutton said.
“We’ve just had to teach him to harness his speed a little bit early as he can be an aggressive type of horse early when he wants to be, but I think the 1400 metres will suit him down to the ground.
“He’d need to run a pretty bold race in the Prelude to warrant to go on to the Guineas and the mile will probably see him out at this stage.
“I don’t want to give him a too taxing spring as he’s still developing.
“There is the Carbine Club Stakes during Cup week on the radar as a run after if we do go to the Guineas, but we’ve still got to take the right steps and if we decide to bypass the Guineas, there’s lots of races around the fringes that we could look at.
“There’s even the Sandown Guineas later in the spring.
“It’s pretty much an open book at this stage.”
