Lindsay Park to send La Pleine Lune to Scone Friday instead of Flemington Saturday

A $200,000 contest at Scone has prompted Lindsay Park trainers Ben, JD and Will Hayes to scratch nine-length debut winner La Pleine Lune from Saturday’s Flemington meeting.

Prioritising a rich restricted race at Scone ahead of a Flemington start could lead to a Brisbane trip for nine-length debut winner La Pleine Lune.

Trainers Ben, JD and Will Hayes accepted to run La Pleine Lune in Saturday’s Sir Eugene Gorman Handicap (1400m) at Flemington but scratched the youngster in favour of Friday’s $200,000 Inglis Challenge at Scone.

La Pleine Lune strolled to an easy win on debut at Warrnambool, showing impressive gate speed before racing further ahead of his opposition in the straight.

However, punters could be wary of the form because La Pleine Lune was in the best part of a poor biased track at Warrnambool.

Ben Hayes said Le Pleine Lune did everything right in his debut win, having no doubt the son of Puissance De Lune would still have comfortably won on a better track.

“All you can do is win and he won impressively,” Hayes said.

“The time was good and he handled the soft track.

“He handled the travel well and he might have been flattered, but I still think he would have won and he won quite easily.”

Hayes said the Inglis Challenge was an attractive target as it was restricted to graduates of Inglis yearling sales.

He added the Scone race would be perfect for La Pleine Lune if connections decided to keep progressing north for the Brisbane Winter Carnival.

La Pleine Lune could find himself in Brisbane if he performs up to expectations at Scone on Friday. Picture: Racing Photos via Getty Images.

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“It’s a good sales race and he’s drawn well (barrier three) in a race for good prizemoney,” Hayes said.

“He’s a horse that we’re half thinking about heading up to Queensland with so he’s halfway there and it’s a good stepping stone.

“If he runs well there, there’s some nice races for him in Queensland.

“When you have nice races like the Scone race to head towards where he will be one of the favourites and hard to beat, we’ve got to head in that direction.”

While La Pleine Lune is an early scratching, Lindsay Park still has a chance to win the Sir Eugene Gorman Handicap with Sneaky Sunrise.

Sneaky Sunrise was narrowly beaten at Ballarat on debut before enduring a luckless passage when seven in the Listed Anzac Day Stakes on April 25.

“We’ve always liked her and she was very unlucky at Flemington,” Hayes said.

“She could never get to the outside and she just had nowhere to go.

“Hopefully she can run on well with a bit more luck this time.

“She’s drawn a good barrier and if we get a better run in transit, it could be a different story for a horse that we’ve always really liked.”

TAB installed Sneaky Sunrise as the $3.60 favourite to win Saturday’s Flemington opener after her stablemate’s withdrawal on Thursday morning.

Originally published as Lindsay Park to send La Pleine Lune to Scone Friday instead of Flemington Saturday