A longer than expected winter has taken its toll on Flying Mascot although trainer Tom Dabernig is not complaining – too much.

Flying Mascot heads to the Group 2 Let’s Elope Stakes (1400m) at Flemington on Saturday, her second run for the preparation.

While a win on Saturday would be nice, Dabernig’s main goal for the campaign is the Group 1 Empire Rose Stakes (1600m) at Flemington on October 29.

Flying Mascot rose quietly through the ranks last spring, winning a Benchmark 70 grade race first-up at Bendigo, progressing to success in the Group 3 Tesio Stakes (1600m) at Moonee Valley third-up before finishing fifth in the Empire Rose.

A four-run autumn campaign saw the mare win twice at Group 3 level at Caulfield and Flemington while filling a place at her other two starts.

Now as a five-year-old, Dabernig said it was time to get a little more serious with the mare and is planning a five-run campaign through to Melbourne Cup week.

However, he did say that that could be altered to a month between runs and trial if he felt Flying Mascot was not coping with the workload.

“She probably looks still wintery in the coat as she’s a bit slow coming out of winter, but I’m intentionally trying to have her ready for Melbourne Cup week,” Dabernig said.

“So, I’ve taken a softly, softly approach with two weeks between runs.

“Hopefully, she’ll just naturally improve through the campaign, and I’ll be interested to see where she is at on Saturday.”

Flying Mascot resumed at Caulfield in the Group 3 Cockram Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield on August 27, finishing fifth behind the unbeaten Chain Of Lightning.

Dabernig said Flying Mascot was not suited racing on the speed outside of Passive Aggressive but was pleased with how she fought on.

“It was a good run,” he said.

“She probably jumped quicker than I thought she would, and we found ourselves up sharing the lead with Passive Aggressive and they finished alongside each other in the run.

“She was beaten 2.6 lengths and I would have loved her to run top-three but when I see the winner and Kissonallfourcheeks, I still think it was a pretty good effort.”