The Listed Chester Manifold Stakes shapes as the race of choice at Flemington for Guizot but trainer Aaron Purcell will wait until later in the week to make a final call.
Guizot is nominated for both the Listed Chester Manifold (1400m) and a 1600m-handicap on Saturday’s program with acceptances to be taken on Wednesday.
The seven-year-old gelding, who Purcell believes has come back as good if not better than ever this preparation, resumed in the Group Three Standish Handicap (1200m) at Flemington on January 1 and held on for fifth behind Halvorsen.
“I’m going to accept for the Chester Manifold and he’s probably going to run but I’m probably not going to make my final decision until Thursday or Friday,” Purcell said.
“I didn’t really want to run him that close together but there’s not a lot of other options so if he’s well I’ll probably run him.”
Purcell said Guizot was pretty fit going into the Standish and had come through the race well so at this stage the intention was to run on Saturday.
“I was definitely happy with the way he has come back and the way he ran and happy with the way he’s pulled up,” he said.
“So I think this should be a good preparation for him.”
Nominations for the Chester Manifold Stakes were extended until Tuesday but there were no additional entries to the original 10 taken on Monday.
Godolphin’s Duca Valentinois heads the weights with 60kg while Guizot has the second highest handicap rating among the nominations and has 56.5kg.
“If the race had have come up a hot race with a big field we might have waited for another day but it doesn’t look to be a super strong stakes race and with his rating there’s not a lot of options for him,” Purcell said.
“It looks like a race he’s going to be competitive in.”
Article from JustHorseRacing.com.au