News

Ron Leemon plots new course for Manawanui

1st Feb 2012

Daily Telegraph - Brent Zerafa - Tuesday, 1 February 2012

GLYN Schofield could be saved from deciding between Hay List or Manawanui because Ron Leemon is contemplating changing the program of his talented three-year-old.

Leemon intended to kick off Manawanui's autumn offensive in the Royal Sovereign Stakes on February 18, the day Hay List is due to resume in the Lightning Stakes in Melbourne.

Now he is considering putting Manawanui up against the older horses a week earlier in the Expressway Stakes.

Aside from allowing Schofield to remain in the saddle, Leemon is warming to the Expressway Stakes because it gives him a three-week break until the Hobartville.

"The plan is to trial next Tuesday and I am going to throw in a nomination for the Expressway Stakes," he said. "It will help Glyn as he won't have to make a decision between horses, it is still a 1200m race and if he trials well he might go there.

"It gives me a three-week break to my second run, which is what I did last preparation.

"It is something I've always believed in. I don't like backing horses up within two weeks of their first run. I like the three-week break, I always have. It is a principle of my training.

"It also just gives us another option because when you look at the programming, it is too restrictive.

"There is no alternative route for three-year-olds. They all have to follow the same path, which I think is wrong. The program isn't as good as the spring, where you have a couple of different pathways."

Mentality is the only three-year-old in the past decade to win the Expressway Stakes, in 2007, and one of only four to contest it. The others are Viscount (2002), Niello (2004) and Primus (2006).

Schofield gave Manawanui a solid work-out on the Warwick Farm course proper early yesterday and was delighted with his condition.