Stutt Stakes or Sandown Saturday assignment for Caulfield Guineas bound Daggers

Sydney will be too wet for Daggers but trainers Natalie Young and Trent Busuttin have a decision to make when it comes to the final Caulfield Guineas lead-up for the exciting colt.

Weather is likely to shut one door but trainers Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young still need a final piece of information about quality three-year-old Daggers.

Busuttin and Young need to find out whether Daggers will handle the 1600m of the Group 1 Caulfield Guineas, one of the major spring goals for three-year-old colts in Australia.

The Cranbourne-based trainers accepted to run in Saturday’s Group 1 Golden Rose but a predicted deluge in Sydney will prevent Daggers tackling the $1m event.

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“He’s a big outsider in the Golden Rose and, on form, we’d only be having a throw at the stumps,” Busuttin said.

“I know from his trials and his gallops that he’s a deadset good-track horse.

“Our thoughts were going to Sydney and bank on him being better on top of the ground.

“Weather forecasters get it wrong a lot but they can’t get it that badly wrong. It’s not going to be a good track.

“Even if they get half the rain forecast, it will be a soft track.”

Big targets await in the Spring for DAGGERS who made it two from two yesterday at Moonee Valley. Well done to all those involved! pic.twitter.com/zXSmyHj6A0

— Cunningham Thoroughbreds (@CunninghamTbred) August 24, 2024

Daggers backed up Busuttin’s assessment of him when the colt incurred his first defeat when third to Dawn Service in the Listed Exford Plate (1400m), which was run on a Soft 7 track at Flemington.

The moderate tempo of the Exford Plate did little to indicate whether Daggers, a son of I Am Invincible would see out a strong 1600m in the Caulfield Guineas.

Busuttin and Young will decide whether to test Daggers over the Caulfield Guineas distance in the Group 2 Stutt Stakes at The Valley on Friday night or keep him at 1400m in a three-year-old race at Sandown on Saturday.

Daggers drew the inside barrier in the Stutt Stakes and barrier eight in his Sandown assignment.

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Busuttin said the varying barrier draws would impact the camp’s race selection for Daggers’ Caulfield Guineas audition.

“We’re just tossing up which way we go, either Sandown or Moonee Valley,” Busuttin said.

“There’s probably still a little query on the mile race but the thought process was that he runs at 1400(m) and if he wins at 1400m, you step up to the Caulfield Guineas.

“I guess if he doesn’t get 1600m at The Valley, he’s not going to get it in a Caulfield Guineas a couple of weeks later.

“You’re just finding out two weeks earlier whether he can get a mile or not.”

Daggers is a $3 favourite in early betting on Saturday’s Evergreen Turf Handicap while the colt is a $4.50 chance in Ladbrokes’ Bill Stutt Stakes market.

Originally published as Stutt Stakes or Sandown Saturday assignment for Caulfield Guineas bound Daggers