Trainer Michael Pitman has finalised plans for a Melbourne spring campaign for members of his team, including ace sprinter Coup Align.
Pitman has booked Coup Align, So Elusive, Eel Win and Eleanor Coup on a flight from Christchurch on September 14. They will fly to Sydney and travel to Victoria by road that night.
Pitman visited Melbourne last week to inspect facilities and settled on the Pat Hyland complex at Cranbourne as a base.
He has pencilled in races for Coup Align ($50,000 1000m) and Eel Win ($70,000 1400m) at Sandown on September 26.
He said he would give Coup Align a barrier trial at Cranbourne beforehand.
Pitman won races with Noble Task and Hit at Sandown in May 1995. Ray Coupland, the owner of Coup Align and Eleanor Coup, was in the ownership of Noble Task and Hit.
So Elusive won two of her three starts as a 3yr-old last season. She won a trial at Waimate on August 3.
Eleanor Coup won two races last season when trained by Kevin Hughes and Steven Kellow. She has not raced since finishing fourth in the New Zealand St Leger at Trentham in March.
• The Solitaire cleared maiden ranks with a gritty performance yesterday.
"She raced greenly and was never travelling but she won well in the finish," David Walsh, her rider, said.
The Solitare was handy three-wide and stuck on well to win by half a length.
She is a 3yr-old filly by O'Reilly from The Dazzler raced by the Dennis brothers, of Woodlands and trained by Steve Anderton.
She is the second foal of The Dazzler, a half-sister by Centaine to The Jewel, winner of the 2002 New Zealand One Thousand Guineas when co-trained by Anderton for the Dennis brothers. The Dazzler had a second in three starts.
• So You Think, who resumes in the Memsie Stakes today, has had surgery to his throat since he last raced, AAP reports.
"The Bart Cummings stable confirmed that it established that So You Think did not fully abduct on the left side of his larynx and that a procedure was performed six months ago to correct the anomaly," the stewards said in a statement.
So You Think, winner of the Cox Plate, has not raced since he finished second in the Emirates Stakes (1600m) at Flemington last November.
• Additional information for today:
Racing Tauranga
Scratchings:
Race 1: Ever And Ever, Barside.
Race 7: Ever And Ever, Lazzaroni, Vermillion.
Weather, overcast; track, heavy (11); rail true.
Hawke's Bay RI
Scratchings:
Race 1: Dark Flight.
Race 2: Big Boy, Princess Katie.
Race 4: He's Under The Gun, What Happened.
Race 5: Six O'Clock News.
Race 6: Burger, Ketrajero.
Race 8: Veronica Franco.
Weather, cloudy; track, slow (8); rail out 2m.
