Trainer Theresa Bateup will consider a shot at the Provincial Championships with Monegal and admits she'll have little choice but to dive back into Saturday grade, if she wins at Canterbury.
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The four-year-old will have her sixth run of the preparation on Wednesday, two weeks after an impressive win in a fillies and mares Benchmark 72 (1550m).
She returns to take on the boys, a potentially defining race around her spring and autumn prospects.
"I definitely don't want to bottom her out this preparation, so we'll just see how she gets through this," Bateup said. "She's such a bright and bubbly little mare, she's travelling well, but this race has a bit more depth than last start and up against the boys.
"This time of year there's not really much available for her to step back into Saturday class, but if she wins, we'll have to look at it."
Monegal has twice run at Rosehill on Saturday during the winter, running third to Call Me Royal on a Heavy 9 and fourth to Phaistos on a Heavy 8 last month.
The lure of a firmer surface may also draw Bateup to find a Saturday race, given Monegal has three wins from six starts on good tracks.
As for the Provincial Championships (1400m), Bateup is taking a wait-and-see approach.
"Whatever she does from here in the spring, we know there's a lot more to offer in the autumn," she said.
"If we do decide to go that way, obviously we'd have to set her for it.
"But we also think she's a horse that can get out over further, even to 2000m, so that may well be the aim."
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