New Zealand conditioner Andrew Forsman will get a better gauge as to the spring fortunes of Riproar after the gelding runs at Moonee Valley.
A half-brother to Mr Maestro, Riproar runs in the Corporate Membership On Sale Plate (1500m) on Saturday as Forsman looks to lock in a spring campaign for the three-year-old.
Mr Maestro ran fourth in the corresponding race last year before going on to win three straight races, including the Group 3 Caulfield Classic (2000m) before finishing fourth in the Group 1 Victoria Derby (2500m) at Flemington.
Riproar was successful in maiden company in New Zealand during a three run two-year-old campaign before commencing his three-year-old year by finishing a close second at Bendigo on August 10.
“I thought he was really good first-up,” Forsman said.
“He did it the tough way, presented and just got nutted on the line, but I thought it was a very game run and he should improve a heap for that run too.
“I’m not sure where we head with him, so that is why we’ve gone straight to 1500 metres and this will tell us whether he has scope to go further, which we’d like to think.
“Once you get past a mile (1600m) against your own age, there’s some nice options.
“He is a half-brother to Mr Maestro, so hopefully he can take a similar path to what he did last spring, and this horse has got quite a deal of quality about him too.
“It looks a pretty small, but competitive race on Saturday, so I think we’ll get a decent line on where we are at on Saturday.”
Forsman is mindful that Moonee Valley can at times be a difficult track to negotiate.
“It tripped up Mr Maestro at his second start here. He got a little bit lost there and didn’t round his race off,” Forsman said.
“But I think this guy has got good improvement and he’ll run an improved race and take further improvement out of it as well.”