Dan Clarken and Oopy MacGillivray harbour spring ambitions for their mare Mating Call, who is scheduled to begin her campaign at Morphettville.
Clarken is keen to see Mating Call race over six furlongs again when she contests the Group 3 Behemoth Stakes (1200m) on Saturday.
The mare’s sole previous attempt at 1200m was on debut, where she was successful at Balaklava nine months ago.
Following her second start, Clarken and MacGillivray immediately travelled to Melbourne for the Group 2 Thousand Guineas Prelude, finishing sixth. Mating Call then ran third in the Group 2 Edward Manifold Stakes and fifth in the Group 1 Thousand Guineas.
“I’m really interested to see her at six furlongs,” Clarken said. “We’ve only seen her the once and that was the day she won her first start at Balaklava and the way she won was just ridiculous. She then ran really well over in Melbourne and that was her first prep. Now she’s furnished into a four-year-old mare and she look fantastic. We’re excited to see where she gets to.”
Mating Call has been nominated for the Cox Plate (2000m) at Flemington in October, though Clarken indicated that a Caulfield Cup (2400m) start was unlikely.
“You have to do these things because you just don’t know as they can come out of left field at this time of year,” Clarken commented on the Cox Plate nomination. “You have to dream, but I’m not sure 2400 metres of the Caulfield Cup would be her go. She probably gets too much up on the steel, she’s not relaxed, for that sort of trip right at the moment. I’m not saying it’s never going to happen, but right at the moment it might be a stretch too far for her.”
Mating Call recently finished second in a Murray Bridge jump-out and completed a gallop between races at Morphettville last Saturday.
“She appears to have come up really well,” Clarken confirmed. “She’s had a jump-out and then she had a good gallop at Morphettville just to get her away from Murray Bridge and get a few shakes and shivers out of the way. It served its purpose. Her time on the tracker was very good. After Saturday, she’ll go over the border, that’s the idea. You have to get them going to start with, this is in our backyard and a good starting point for her, and then we can work out where to go from there.”
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