The Goodwood at Morphettville did not pan out for Behemoth the way his trainer David Jolly had hoped and the gelding will now spell ahead of a spring campaign.

South Australian trainer David Jolly is likely to follow a similar early Melbourne spring campaign with Behemoth to the one that saw the gelding land two Group 1 victories last year.

Last spring, Behemoth won the Memsie Stakes and Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes, both Group 1 races over 1400m at Caulfield, with Jolly saying those races again look likely targets.

Behemoth is heading for a short break after finishing seventh in The Goodwood (1200m) at Morphettville on Saturday, a race that Jolly said was chosen to keep the gelding in work.

Jolly said starting Behemoth in The Goodwood came about as the gelding would have been spelling for too long.

Prior to Saturday, Behemoth had not started since finishing third behind Mugatoo in The All-Star Mile (1600m) at The Valley in March.

Jolly said Behemoth came through Saturday’s run in good order, however the race did not pan out the way he had hoped.

“He probably looked better after the race than he did before,” Jolly said.

“But he didn’t have much luck as he got posted a little wide.

“It was a funny sort of prep into it as we were coming off the mile from the autumn, so it was an interim run for the spring. You are hopeful that you want them to go well, but at the end of the day it didn’t really suit him.

“The bias was a bit more towards the fence and that didn’t help him.”

Jolly said Behemoth would now have two to three weeks out before preparing for the spring.

“Because he’s such a big horse, I think that really suits him, as if he has two or three months off it takes a long time to get him back to fitness,” Jolly said.

“We’ll probably try and do what we did last year. Have a run in the Spring Stakes at home and then gear up to run in Melbourne.”

Article from JustHorseRacing.com.au