Tuesday morning’s Pakenham jumpouts signalled the return to work for two OTI Racing-owned gallopers with lofty goals for the new calendar year.
Daqiansweet Junior and Amade, who are both trained by Phillip Stokes, have returned to work and were given quiet jumpouts at Pakenham over 1000m and 1100m respectively ahead of upcoming campaigns targeting Group 1 success.
OTI Racing CEO Terry Henderson said last year’s Adelaide Cup winner Daqiansweet Junior will this preparation head north to Sydney before eventually having another tilt at the Melbourne Cup, having run so well in that event last year to finish in sixth place.
“He’s very well, we’re very happy with him,” Henderson said.
“We’ll probably keep him in mind to go through the Roy Higgins (Quality) and then onto the Sydney Cup, I don’t think he’ll go to the Adelaide Cup.”
A defence of sorts of last year’s Adelaide Cup crown remains on the cards, however, with Henderson suggesting stablemate Amade will likely represent the OTI Racing and Stokes combination in the G2 feature in March.
“Amade was a bit unlucky not to get into last year’s Melbourne Cup, he’ll probably be aimed at the Adelaide Cup,” Henderson said.
“Both horses had quiet trials, but both went well.”
The above is a replication of an article written by Tim Yeatman for racing.com and can be read in full here.