Matt Cumani is already talking up his prospects for spring next year.
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The Ballarat trainer believes he has an import with potential to mark a significant mark in 2022.
Cumani was upbeat after seeing Irish-bred Taramansour ($2.40 favourite) score his first Australian win in the Hygain Winners Choice Benchmark64 Handicap, 2100m, at his third Australian start on the Ballarat synthetic track on Tuesday.
Taramansour arrived from Ireland with one win in seven starts.
He was fifth on debut at Bendigo on July 1 - first-up since October last year - and followed up with a second on the Ballarat synthetic.
Cumani said the plan was to take him through his grades and then give him a break with a view to next year.
"I haven't got any hard fixed nice targets this spring. We'll keep him going along as long as he's handling it well," he said.
Cumani said the priority was to "keep him nice and happy" and try to win a few races along the way.
He believes the five-year-old will keep improving and building to spring next year, with 2400m his optimum trip. "I just love his action. It's nice to see a horse with a big action."
Cumani said while landing some nice races this spring would be a great outcome, he would also be happy to get a few benchmark races under his belt before looking at bigger races in future preparations.
WS COX Plate-entered Eagles Crag made a promising start to his spring for Ballarat trainer Archie Alexander at Sandown Hillside on Wednesday.
The imported five-year-old finished second to Mr Bright Side in the IVE Print Handicap, 1600m.
It was just his fourth career start, with the entire having won his only two previous Australian starts at Pakenham and Sandown Lakeside.
Alexander said pre-race that Eagles Crag went well fresh and hopefully he would build and progress on whatever he produced.
In the meantime, Alexander has another spring hopeful resuming at Caulfield on Saturday.
Barade, which is nominated for the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups, is back from a spell in the Neds Handicap, 1600m.
Barade is coming off an interstate cups campaign early in the year.
Having won over 2206m at Eagle Farm in January, the seven-year-old finished third in the Hobart Cup, fourth in the Launceston Cup and fifth in the Adelaide Cup.