Prime gate positions are highly sought after, especially at tracks with narrow bends.
Lindsay Park thus chose to bypass entering Plymouth in last Saturday’s Listed Mornington Cup (2400m), regardless of the winner’s ballot free pass to the Group 1 Caulfield Cup (2400m) come October.
The Ben, Will and J D Hayes stablemate Plymouth landed stall 17 for the Mornington Cup; Kings Valley from post 6 prevailed to snag the Caulfield Cup spot.
Missing out there, Plymouth lines up in Saturday’s Flemington Benchmark 100 at 2000m.
Ben Hayes lamented the Mornington withdrawal but deemed the draw prohibitive for the gelding.
“Unfortunately, 17 over 2400 metres at Mornington, we didn’t feel it was right,” he said.
“He needed a nice barrier. Last start he drew well and we ended up too far back, so we decided to scratch from Mornington, and we will head towards the 2000-metre race at Flemington on Saturday.
“After that, and depending on his performance, he could then head towards the Warrnambool Cup.”
May 7 hosts the Listed Warrnambool Cup (2350m), which Lindsay Park claimed in 2019 using Furrion when David and Ben Hayes teamed with Tom Dabernig.
Plymouth was performing adequately before his recent absence.
He was second across the line in the Albury Cup on March 20, followed by a 12th placing from 14 in the Group 3 Easter Cup (2000m) at Caulfield on April 3 behind Ambassadorial.
“He’s fine and it was just the barrier why we didn’t run,” Hayes said.
“It’s very hard from out there, especially at Mornington.”
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