Michael Hickmott said a decision regarding where promising former New Zealand three-year-old Talamo lines up in Melbourne won’t be made until Friday morning.
Hickmott has Talamo nominated at Moonee Valley on Friday night while the horse is also an acceptor for Saturday’s $250,000 Group 2 Sandown Guineas where Craig Williams is booked to ride.
“Tommy (Heptinstall, part-owner) hasn’t decided where he’s going to run just yet,’’ Hickmott said.
“That probably won’t be made until 7.30am tomorrow morning.
“At this stage I’d say he’d want to have a go at the Sandown Guineas,’’ he said.
Talamo scored a dominant four length win at Murray Bridge when debuting and Hickmott said there were genuine excuses for his past two starts.
“The horse won his first start impressively in Australia,’’ Hickmott added.
“He should have bolted in his second start here and the other day was a complete forget job,’’ he said.
While the stable is undecided regarding Talamo, Hickmott said he was heading to Moonee Valley confident his progressive staying mare Matas would again run well as she chases a third successive win over the 3850m trip.
Hickmott has booked Michael Rodd for the ride and the horse is already Jericho Cup bound following her dominant 9.3 length win at Gawler last time out.
“I didn’t want to go five weeks into the Jericho from Gawler,’’ Hickmott said.
“I just thought this was a nice stepping stone. She’ll come to the farm here at Lakewood (after Melbourne) and hopefully by then the borders are open and I can take her to Warrnambool
“I bred her, so it would be a huge thrill to win at the Valley let alone the Jericho,’’ he said.
Hickmott has always had faith Matas would come into her own once she stepped out over staying distances evident with her past two wins coming at 3000m and 3340m.
“I’ve always know, doing her lactates and the work we’ve always done with her, she’s got a huge aerobic capacity and she’s just getting better and better as she goes,’’ Hickmott said.
“She’s training on well and holding her condition good, she’ll parade really good at Moonee Valley and I think she’s going to really hard to beat,’’ he said.