As our feature spring horses return to the races, we see Hezashocka and Daqiansweet Junior clash in the Heatherlie Stakes on Saturday at Caulfield.
While Daqiansweet Junior has already had one run this preparation, Hezashocka will be kicking off his campaign in the Listed race held over 1700m. Both suited to longer journeys than Saturday’s event, we are unlikely to see the best of either until they go over 2000m or further.
See the field and all race details for Saturday here.
DJ’s first run this prep was in the BM100 at Caulfield over 1600m on August 19 and was a satisfactory one, finishing 6l adrift of winner Jimmy The Bear.
“He did what he came here to do and it was an acceptable performance. He has bigger targets and needs a few runs to get to his right distance and build up his fitness. He jumped well, which is something we struggled with last prep, so hopefully we can keep that going and improve a bit each run” said trainer Phillip Stokes to owners after the race.
The gelding has proven before that he can be most competitive over the famous Melbourne Cup distance, winning the Adelaide Cup in 2022 and running a great sixth place in the Melbourne Cup the same year. With the Cup again as his main target for the campaign we hope to see some competitive runs leading into the weeks before the big race.
After a memorable campaign last spring, Hezashocka has exciting targets waiting for him this preparation. With his ideal journeys seemingly between 2000-2400m, he has shown that he can be most competitive at black-type level. Last year’s run in the G1 Champion Stakes, where he finished third to Zaaki and M’ounga (finishing in front of Anamoe and I’m Thunderstruck) sparked genuine excitement within his ownership group.
Possible targets for Hezashocka this spring could include the G1 Underwood Stakes, G1 Turnbull Stakes and/or the G1 Caulfield Cup.
We look forward to following their respective journies throughout the spring.