Tuesday morning trackwork will determine whether Lady In Pink gets the chance to embark on a Caulfield Cup audition in this Saturday’s $300,000 Pakenham Cup.
Co-trainer Troy Corstens is keen to give the last-start Ballarat Cup runner-up one more run this campaign but is conscious of how long she has been in work.
The four-year-old has had five starts in a successful campaign that stretches back to the Group 2 Rose Of Kingston Stakes (1400m) at Flemington on October 5 and while Corstens thinks she has one more run in her, he wants to put her through her paces on Tuesday before committing to a start.
“My only little concern is we’ve been up for a long time and last week was probably our Grand Final,” Corstens said.
“I don’t want to make judgement on her over the further distance if it’s an end-of-prep run but if she’s showing signs of that I’ll see it Tuesday morning and we won’t run anyway.
“I just need to see her work and that she still wants to be there.”
After a first-up seventh, Lady In Pink won the Group 2 Tristarc Stakes (1400m), finished down the track in the Group 1 Empire Rose Stakes (1600m) before placings in the Matriarch Stakes (2000m) and Ballarat Cup.
The 2500m Pakenham Cup would be the first start beyond 2000m for Lady In Park, a daughter of Pariah and an Encosta de Lago mare, and a benefit of going around this weekend would be that she gets experience at a trip Corstens has always thought she would appreciate.
“I’ve thought the whole way along that she is a 2400, 2500-metre horse,” Corstens, who trains in partnership with his father Leon and Will Larkin, said.
“She’ll have a really light autumn, maybe one run and then a nice break, and hopefully we can set her for a Caulfield Cup.
“That’s kind of why I want to see her (at Pakenham) and work out where we are heading.”
Lady In Pink was one of 24 nominations for the Pakenham Cup with Melbourne Cup winner Vow And Declare, the rejuvenated Smokin’ Romans and his Ciaron Maher-trained stablemates Interpretation and Herman Hesse among potential rivals, along with Muramasa.
