DYNAMIC DUO: Dan O'Sullivan with Tascan Fire, left, and British General yesterday after their good wins at the weekend. PICTURE: KATE HEALY.
EMERGING galloper British General will be nominated for the prestigious Doncaster Mile following Saturday’s tough win in the listed Chester Manifold Stakes, 1400m, at Flemington.
Ballarat trainer Dan O’Sullivan confirmed he would enter the five-year-old for Sydney’s Easter feature and is considering a run in the group one CF Orr Stakes, 1400m, as a possible lead-up at Caulfield.
“That’s probably ambitious,” O’Sullivan said of a Doncaster run.
“At the moment we will just keep ticking him over.
“If he goes out now for a good break he is going to come back in the winter time, but that’s probably not what we want to do.
“We will just push along a little bit further and see how far he goes. He’s handling it really well, he’s very fit but each run now we assess what we want to do because he’s raised the bar so far. We’ve just got to decide what we do as we go along.”
British General ($2.10), who won the Chester Manifold in a sizzling 1.21.46min from Dash For Viz and Under The Eiffel, is likely to have his next start in either the listed John Dillon Stakes, 1400m, at Caulfield on January 26 or a week later in the Swettenham Stud Summer Championship Final, 1600m, at the same track.
O’Sullivan is also plotting his attack with British General’s stablemate Tuscan Fire ($2.05), who secured the first leg of the trainer’s metropolitan double on Saturday by winning the Rain Lover Handicap, 2500m.
Top jockey Glen Boss rode both horses as part of a winning quartet on the day.
Tuscan Fire and British General both won at Flemington on the same day two weeks prior.
A path to the Adelaide Cup is the plan for Tuscan Fire, who is likely to run in the listed Mornington Cup Prelude, 2000m, on February 2 at Caulfield before a start in the listed Mornington Cup, 2400m, on February 13.
The Adelaide Cup, 3200m, is run at Morphettville on March 11.
tim.oconnor@fairfaxmedia.com.au