News

Kavanagh hatches Sydney back-up plan for Whobegotyou

16th Feb 2009

Racenet - Brad Waters - Monday, 16 February 2009

The GII Hobartville Stakes at Rosehill on February 28 looms at the back-up plan for classy three-year-old Whobegotyou if trainer Mark Kavanagh doesn’t deem him fit enough to pursue the GI Cadbury Guineas (1600m).

Kavanagh said Whobegotyou “worked very strongly” at Flemington on Saturday morning but also said that doubts still remain as to the gelding’s fitness to tackle the Cadbury Guineas.

“I was very happy with the way he worked this morning,” Kavanagh said.

“But there is still the problem that he has missed work and the Guineas is still up in the air at the moment.

“I’ll enter him for next Saturday at Caulfield (in the GII Autumn Classic) but it might come up a bit quick for him.

“I’ll give a really good gallop at Flemington on Tuesday and make a decision from there.”

Whobegotyou already appears in the nominations for Saturday’s event but Kavanagh is comfortable with whatever scenario presents itself after the son of Street Cry’s gallop on Tuesday.

“If he’s not right for the Guineas, he’s not right. There’s nothing we can do about it and it’s fine if he doesn’t get there, there are a million other races for him,” Kavanagh said.

“If he’s not fit enough for the Guineas, I’ll give him a couple more weeks work and take him to straight to Sydney to run in the Hobartville Stakes at the end of the month.

“The Guineas would have been nice to run in but its not one of his main targets, his three main races this time in are the Randwick Guineas, Ryder Stakes and the Doncaster (Mile).”

If Whobegotyou runs in the Hobartville Stakes, he will take on Greg Eurell’s undefeated gelding Mic Mac, a super-impressive five length winner at Moonee Valley on Saturday.

Mic Mac’s owner Maurice Messara has got his way with top Sydney jockey Hugh Bowman engaged for the son of Statue of Liberty in his Sydney debut.