Trainer Michael Pitman is of a mind to back up Coup Align at Caulfield next Saturday after a win in the $A75,000 Apache Cat Classic at Cranbourne yesterday.
"He has proved he can back up such as when he won the Pegasus and Stewards within four days at the New Zealand Cup meeting last year," the Riccarton trainer said from his Cranbourne base last night.
"I am tempted to back him up. There is a $200,000 race over 1100m at Caulfield available for him next Saturday."
Coup Align (57kg) won over 1000m yesterday in the hands of Glen Boss.
Pitman was pleased Coup Align could be ridden in behind.
"I have always felt he would be better if he could be steadied. He trailed the leaders and Glen said he was the best over the last 50m."
Coup Align, owned in Christchurch by Ray Coupland and his partner Jill Walls, has now won 11 of his 17 starts.
Pitman also trained So Elusive to win the previous race, a $20,000 1000m event with Craig Williams the rider.
So Elusive is owned in Auckland by Jim Bruford and Jim Piper.
Pitman said Eleanor Coup shaped like an improver in her race yesterday Pitman took Coup Align, So Elusive, Eel Win and Eleanor Coup to Australia on September 15.
Eel Win has been under treatment for a stomach ulcer.
Coup Align had finished sixth in lead-up race at Caulfield.
He is being aimed at the $750,000 weight-for-age Patinack Farm Classic (1200m) at Flemington on November 6.
Coupland is also in the ownership of Fears Nothing, one of four winners at Hawera on Saturday for Foxton trainers David Haworth and Matt Dixon and jockey Hayden Tinsley.
They also won with Halls (Egmont Cup), Rendezvous and Tulloroan.
Tinsley had won the Egmont Cup in 1991 (Westgate) and Kaapeon (2001).
• The Gore Racing Club meeting scheduled for yesterday was transferred to today due to surface water on the track.
The track was to be inspected again at 6am today.
The race starting times have been amended, with the first race at 12.15pm.
Horses scratched yesterday were reinstated.
Jamie Bullard is not riding today.
He had the mounts on Benny The Ball (race 1), Petty Lane (race 2) and Mangaroa Prince (race 3) Dancing Jess, winner of the $80,000 Taranaki Breeders' Stakes at Hawera on Saturday, has recovered from a leg fracture, NZPA reports.
She was diagnosed with a broken hind leg two weeks after her first win, her co-trainer, Chris Bothwell, said.
That was on her home track at Stratford in December, 2007, in her first start.
• Dancing Jess won fresh-up at Stratford 12 months later.
Bothwell said she was "as tough as they come". Dancing Jess, having her first race for four months, posted her sixth win in 16 starts.
She was ridden by Noel Harris, who won the race on Just A Star in 1986.
The favourite, Tudor Bubble, finished sixth after being galloped on.
• Glyn Schofield is back aboard Herculian Prince in the Caulfield Cup next Saturday, AAP reports.
Favourite Alcopop and Herculian Prince are listed at 19 and 20 respectively in the order of entry for the 18-horse field.
Both have 53.5kg.
Schofield has ridden Herculian Prince three times including a win in the listed JRA Plate (2000m) in April.
Nash Rawiller rode Herculian Prince to win the Metropolitan Handicap (2400m) at Randwick at his last start.
Schofield has the ride on crack sprinter Hay List, winner of the McEwen Stakes, Manikato Stakes (gr one) and Gilgai Stakes this spring.
• Black Caviar was within 0.71sec of the track record for 1000m when she won the Schillaci Stakes in her first race for eight and a-half months at Caulfield on Saturday.
She won easing down to remain unbeaten in six starts.
Luke Nolen, who rode Black Caviar, said she would improve for her next start, most likely the Schweppes Stakes (1200m) at Moonee Valley on Saturday week.
Hay List, the winner of 12 of his 14 starts, has the same race on his programme.
• Trainer Bart Cummings has confirmed So You Think will attempt the Melbourne Cup.
So You Think is at $1.75 with TAB Sportsbet for the Cox Plate after his easy win in the Yalumba Stakes at Caulfield on Saturday.
Cummings trained Saintly, who completed the Cox Plate-Melbourne Cup double in 1996.
Sans Frontieres has been withdrawn from the Melbourne Cup by trainer Jeremy Noseda, due to the European galloper suffering severe muscle stiffness.
