Basilinna on track despite setback

[Wandering Eyes]

Basilinna (NZ) (Staphanos) has suffered a minor setback heading into her spring campaign, which ruled her out of a first-up run at Caulfield on Saturday.

The daughter of Novara Park stallion Staphanos jumped out quietly over 1200 metres at Pakenham on Wednesday, but a post-trial scope revealed a degree of mucus.

Accordingly, Emma-Lee Browne, who trains in partnership with her husband David, was happy to skip the weekend and will only kick Basilinna off when she is fully ready.

“She trialled well enough, but she just had a bit of mucus when we scoped her,” she said.

“So, we just thought, ‘Alright, we’ll hold fire’. There are so many options, so we’ll just wait for a bit and make sure she’s 100 per cent.”

Basillina shot up the three-year-old ranks last season, going straight from her maiden win to racing competitively at Group One level in the same campaign.

She finished third in the Gr.1 VRC Oaks behind Zardozi and was most recently seen finishing a game sixth in the Gr.1 ATC Oaks, six lengths off Autumn Angel.

The now mare was nominated for both a 1400-metre Benchmark 84 and the Gr.1 Memsie Stakes on Saturday, but Browne said the latter was speculative at best.

A much more low-key kick-off is likely for Basilinna, in a preparation where the team will let their galloper guide them through.

“We just threw a Memsie nomination in because we’d heard from a few of the agents that they didn’t think it would be an overly big field,” she said.

“I just thought if she’d bounced through the trial well, she could’ve maybe run into a fourth or a third, which would’ve been good for her pedigree, but that’s definitely off the table.

“We might even kick her off at the open-mile race at Ballarat in a couple of weeks, there’s so many options for her.

“We’ll just take it as it comes at the moment. We’re really happy with her, but she just picked up one of those early spring colds, so we’ll just feel our way along for a bit.”

Talented gelding Le Zebra (NZ) (Rip Van Winkle) is also on track to return after a freshen up, having trialled impressively on the same day as Basillina, trucking into third under no pressure over 1000m.

The son of Rip Van Winkle, who was luckless at his most recent start at Flemington earlier this month, is delighting the Brownes with his current work and is set to run at Benchmark 84 level on Moir Stakes Day.

“We were so pleased with him, he was really, really good,” Browne said.

“Again, we sort of thought about running him over 1400m, but there’s a mile race at The Valley next week that will probably suit him better.”

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