Lindsay Park Racing will line up Long Leaf (Fastnet Rock) in the final feature three-year-old race of the spring carnival at Sandown on Saturday.
Long Leaf will back up in the Gr.2 Sandown Guineas (1600m) after taking on the sprinting three-year-olds in the Coolmore Stud Stakes (1200m) finishing sixth.
Co-trainer Tom Dabernig is not sure how Long Leaf will handle the rise to a mile having disappointed the stable at that distance in the Gr.1 Champagne Stakes at Randwick as an autumn two-year-old.
"It's a bit of an unusual prep for us going from the 1200 metres straight to the mile," Dabernig said.
"I don't know what his best trip is, it's possibly 1400 metres, so we'll see how he handles it on Saturday."
Dabernig said in hindsight withdrawing Long Leaf from the Listed Springtime Stakes at Flemington last Saturday may have been a mistake.
"We pulled him out because of the gate but where the winner came from, right back and down the middle, maybe we should have run," Dabernig said.
Mark Zahra takes the ride on Long Leaf who was sold out of Curraghmore’s 2017 New Zealand Bloodstock draft. -AAP
