Masked Crusader is one of the country’s best sprinters and spends plenty of time trained out of the venue that is home to the ‘Straight Six’, but he is yet to see Australia’s most famous sprint course.
That will all change on Friday morning when the explosive five-year-old ramps up his Black Caviar Lightning preparations with an 800-metre course proper jumpout at Flemington.
The gelding finished fourth in a jumpout that contained Tofane and Swats That on the inside grass track last Friday, but Wayne Hawkes said this Friday’s workout would be an even more important part of his preparations for the Black Caviar Lightning on February 19.
“He just had a little easy poke-around (last Friday), but he’ll have another jumpout down the straight on Friday at Flemington that will give him his first look at the straight,” Hawkes told RSN.
“We know Nature Strip can handle it, (but) we never ever have, so next Friday will give us a good little test.”
Masked Crusader is not only yet to jump out at Flemington, he is yet to race there with his four Victorian starts being at Caulfield (twice), Moonee Valley and Bendigo.
The Group 1 Black Caviar Lightning (1000m) shapes as a stern initiation with Nature Strip and Eduardo, whom Masked Crusader split in last year’s The Everest, brilliant Coolmore Stud Stakes winner Home Affairs, Profiteer and Gytrash among the others chasing the $1 million event.
Hawkes said the Lightning shapes as ‘the race of the autumn carnival in Melbourne and or Sydney’ and he or his co-trainer, father John and brother Michael, could not be happier with Masked Crusader’s physical condition.
“I’ve never, ever seen him look better, he just looks ridiculous,” Hawkes said. “Hopefully that will equate to something good.”
The Lightning will provide insight into what follows for Masked Crusader with the Group 1 Newmarket Handicap (1200m) a realistic option if he handles the straight.
“We’ll see how he runs in the Lightning and that determines whether you run in a Newmarket or whether he goes straight back to Sydney,” Hawkes said.
“He’s probably only going to have three runs and end up running in a TJ (Smith Stakes) then straight to the paddock and get ready for The Everest.”