Last year's Canonbury Stakes winner Diamond To Pegasus resumes in Sydney this weekend off a four-month injury hiatus.
Photo by Racing and Sports
Sydney autumn plans for the three-year-old were put on hold in January when trainer Tony Sergi found the horse was suffering from a knee spur.
The Queanbeyan gelding has since recovered and Sergi hoped the son of Fusaichi Pegasus was on the verge of rediscovering his blistering two-year-old form.
“Peter Millynn has been riding him in trackwork and Pete used to ride Takeover Target in all his work,” Sergi said.
“When we first got this horse he said 'this horse is sensational, he's running times as well as Takeover'.
“That's why we really got excited about the horse but over time it just wore away. He had a little spur in the knee which we've treated.
“This [Wednesday] morning Pete came back and he said he's back, this is the best work he's done in a long time.”
Sergi had nominated to run at Canterbury this afternoon but withdrew after snagging the widest barrier.
Instead he'll contest the Benchmark 74 Handicap (1200m) at Rosehill where he's drawn the inside gate.
Sergi has engaged apprentice jockey Shaun Guymer who can claim three kilograms to offset Diamond To Pegasus' encumbering 58kg.
“I've taken the weight off him obviously to compensate a little bit, so we'll just see how he goes,” Sergi said.
“The only thing is I haven't trialled him this time in.
“I would've had to trial him on that Acton track [at Canberra] which I don't like too much so I thought I'd just start him straight up and see how we go.
“I've just poured a bit more work into him, I was going to start him last week and we drew a bad barrier so he's had a little bit of extra work going into it so that's made up for it I think.”
Meanwhile, two-year-old stablemate On Our Selection has been sent to the paddock following his second placing in the Golden Bullet (1050m) at Queanbeyan last month.
Sergi had initially hoped to target the Group 1 Sires Produce Stakes (1400m), but the lofty plan never came to fruition.
“He's been a little bit disappointing but he's been unlucky too with a couple of the rides,” Sergi said.
“He'll be a nice three-year-old.”
