Consistent sprinter Hard To Say will step up to Group company following a tidy first-up victory.
The Sydney Stakes on the Everest Day undercard will be the next stop for Hard To Say after he resumed with a courageous first-up win over Group One placegetter I Am Unstoppable at Warwick Farm.
Trainer Jason Deamer confirmed the Group 3 sprint on October 19 was firmly on their radar as the dual stakes placegetter went in search of a breakthrough black-type win.
Hard To Say is raced by Dynamic Syndications, which will be represented in The Everest (1200m) by I Am Me, and Deamer says Dynamic's Adam Watt is keen to land the sprint double.
"All going well, he will have a crack at the Sydney Stakes," Deamer said.
"Adam wants to try to be greedy and win both of them.
"We could run in the Sydney Stakes, The Hunter, then maybe give him a little let-up and get him ready for the Magic Millions. That's the long-term plan."
Hard To Say has continued to improve each preparation and Deamer says that trend has continued this spring.
Lumping equal topweight of 60kg, Hard To Say ($4.60) found a position midfield under Nash Rawiller and enjoyed an unimpeded run down the outside to narrowly hold off the late charge of I Am Unstoppable ($2.30 fav), with Renosu ($6.50) another two lengths away third.
The runner-up was scratched from the Group 2 Gilgai Stakes (1200m) in Melbourne on Saturday in the hope of getting a confidence-boosting win on the board in Monday's Kia Ora Prague Handicap (1000m), but his chances were dealt a blow when he was slow to jump.
Last year's Coolmore Stud Stakes runner-up then found traffic in the straight before doing his best work late once clear in an effort trainer Ciaron Maher's Sydney foreman Johann Gerard-Dubord said he couldn't be disappointed in.
"He missed the jump, lost a couple of lengths there and over 1000 metres, that is always very costly," Gerard-Dubord said.
"He probably didn't get the momentum we needed. But he was good late, good through the line.
"We wanted to see him come back well, which he has done without winning.
"He is a very talented horse. He will improve off the back of that and he should have a good spring."
Richard and Will Freedman have black-type aspirations for improving filly Zoubaby, who remains undefeated this campaign after accounting for a handy field in the Bisley Workwear Handicap (1100m).
The three-year-old was competitive against the likes of stakes winners Clean Energy and Lazzura last campaign and Richard Fredman said she had earned herself another shot at better company.
"We think this filly is well above average," Freedman said.
"We will probably take her to Melbourne now and have a crack at a Listed race or something like that."
Zoubaby ($12) scored by three-quarters of a length over Amelita ($2.60 fav) with Couple's Retreat ($7) the same margin away third.
