Melbourne campaign on the line for Merrily

[Wandering Eyes]

Merrily will make her long-awaited debut at Doomben on Saturday if the rain stays away. (Photo: Magic Millions)

While Scallopini and Shooting For Gold fly to Melbourne on Tuesday night, their unraced stablemate Merrily will press her claims to join the pair when she debuts at Doomben on Saturday.

The two-year-old filly from the Steven O’Dea & Matthew Hoysted stable has shown plenty of promise at the trials, winning two last September by a combined 9.25 lengths.

Although she was being prepared to race in one of the first metropolitan two-year-old races of the season at the time, a slight setback has delayed her racetrack debut almost 12 months.

“It’s just been a little bit of time – we had her ready to go and she was going to run in that first two-year-old metro race here at Eagle Farm,” co-trainer Hoysted told HorseBetting.

“She was in that race and just in her final piece of work on the Tuesday morning, I just wasn’t 100% happy with the way she trotted up post that gallop.

“We X-rayed her; there were no issue, no chips or anything like that, but just showed that that bone – she was still quite immature – and just wasn’t handling the pressure she was under at that stage, so we opted to give her a good spell and give her the time.

“She was back in and close to getting to the trials and actually got cast in her box. She just pulled a muscle in behind – sort of tweaked a hamstring – so again, needed to go out again, but since that, we’ve had a faultless prep to date and obviously really looking forward to getting her to the races.”

Despite it being a long wait to see Merrily debut, the Astern filly could be forced to wait another day should the forecast rain fall on Doomben throughout the back end of the week.

If the surface is too heavy, Hoysted says they are likely to scratch her and bypass the Melbourne spring, as Saturday’s race would be a key part of her Victorian preparation.

“We’ve had to keep a close eye on how much rain we were going to get leading into the weekend,” he said.

“She showed she got through a rain-affected surface that day (July 12 barrier trial), but if it was really wet, there’d be a question on running.

“All her chances of heading down (to Melbourne) are all determined on form and how she was to go. If she was to line up on Saturday, she’d have to win and win pretty impressively to justify a trip down.

“She’s a really nice filly that definitely has that ability – whether she’s going to lack those race smarts against a few of these more experienced horses – but we won’t really know until she comes under pressure race day.”

By Astern and out of Listed-winning mare Merriest, Merrily has been earmarked for the Group 3 Quezette Stakes (1100m) and Listed Atlantic Jewel Stakes (1200m) should she go to Melbourne.

Her dam won the Atlantic Jewel in 2016, so Hoysted said the stable would get a lot of enjoyment out of seeing its filly replicate those feats, but he accepts that those targets could just be “pie in the sky” races for the time being.

“It works well. It sort of leads three weeks to the Quezette and then it’s a couple of weeks to the Atlantic Jewel,” the trainer said.

“They’re just races that are sort of pie in the sky type stuff. She’s obviously a really talented filly, and she was definitely on the radar heading down.

“Now she’s just got to really put her hand up and justify herself a trip down there.”

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