Glen Thompson has identified the Group 1 Empire Rose Stakes as the primary target for Benagil this spring, with the Australasian Oaks winner returning to the jump outs last week.
The daughter of Manhattan Rain was a dominant winner of the fillies’ staying feature in Adelaide, before two luckless goes in the Sunshine State, the latest a closing third in the G1 Queensland Oaks.
Benagil has been on holiday since but is not far from the end of her spell and at this stage will jump out twice before hitting the Empire Rose via the Weekend Hussler Stakes in October.
“She’ll have two jumpouts heading into probably the Weekend Hussler at Caulfield,” Thompson told RSN on Wednesday morning.
“It’s just the right timing, sort of three weeks out from the Empire Rose, which will be her main goal for the spring.”
Watch Benagil’s Lastest Jump Out here:
Benagil was preparing to back up for the Q22 before a slight injury setback saw her tipped out to the paddock in Queensland, where she has been since.
She is thriving, by all indications and will even spend a couple of weeks on the treadmill up north, before heading back to Thompson’s Flemington stable to step up the preparation.
“She’s still up in Queensland, she’ll head down here around the 4th of August,” he said.
“But she’s up there in the warmer weather and all reports are she’s doing really well.
“She came through the Oaks better than I thought and we were really keen to back her up a week later, but she just had a setback that ruled us out.
“She’s really thrived on her racing and definitely hasn’t taken a backwards step all preparation.”
