Queenslander Savanna Amour was well backed before the postponed Bletchingly Stakes but trainer John Meagher will be delighted if his mare can simply run into the placings in the Group III race on Sunday.
Savanna Amour firmed from $14 into $9 last Saturday but never got a crack at them when the Caulfield meeting was called off due to high winds before the Bletchingly Stakes (1200m) was run.
The race has now been absorbed into Sunday's Grand National Hurdle meeting at Sandown and Savanna Amour will line up.
The four-year-old mare, a dual Group winner, will have her first look at Sandown on Wednesday morning when she has a spin around the track.
Savanna Amour will be having her first start since winning the Group III Gold Coast Guineas in May, with syndicator Grant Morgan spelling her during the main portion of the Queensland Winter carnival as he feared she would not handle the controversial Eagle Farm track.
Savanna Amour will be tackling open-age racing for the first time in the Bletchingly Stakes and Meagher is convinced the Love Conquers All mare has the class to be competitive.
But he warned that her main mission was a crack at the Group I Memsie Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield on September 2.
"She is very athletic but perhaps she is not quite at 100 percent fitness for the Bletchingly," Meagher said.
"I would love her to sit back in the race and if she ran on into the first two or three I would be very happy.
"If she happened to win it would be a bonus.
"The Tatt's Tiara during the Queensland winter would have been an ideal race but we decided to spell her.
"The good thing is she is a lightly-raced mare with a lot of upside and it is a positive that we have been able to be very patient with her."
Savanna Amour's connections are keen to target the Memsie as it is a starting off point for many horses who have bigger Spring goals and may not be fully wound up on the day.
"I hope we can get two or three runs out of Savanna Amour in the next little while in Melbourne and then perhaps give her a spell and bring her back for some races at the other end of the carnival," Meagher said.
Savanna Amour will be ridden in the Bletchingly by Golden Slipper-winning jockey Ben Melham.
Meanwhile, two-time Group I winner Yankee Rose won her most recent trial, at the Sunshine Coast, as the star mare prepares for a first-up tilt at the Memsie Stakes.
