The Metropolitan favourite Eliyass isn’t completely locked in to lining up in the Group 1 race with his Tulloch Lodge trainers keen to keep all options on the table for now.
The import will take the next step in his campaign when he tackles the Group 3 Kingston Town Stakes (2000m) at Randwick on Saturday, bidding to maintain his unbeaten record in Australia.
While co-trainer Adrian Bott says The Metropolitan (2400m), run at Randwick on October 5, is the horse’s probable target, an earlier trip to Melbourne hasn’t been ruled out.
“The most likely path is The Metropolitan off the back of Saturday, but we’ll look at a couple of Melbourne options as well,” Bott said this week.
“The Caulfield Cup would be the main one we’d be looking at, but it would be pretty enticing to keep him here first.”
The Caulfield Cup (2400m) is two weeks after The Metropolitan so there would be nothing stopping Eliyass from contesting both features.
But first stop will be the Kingston Town where he will be striving to back-up his impressive victories in the Lord Mayor’s Cup (2000m) in June and the Premier’s Cup over the same course and distance last month.
The six-year-old did his early racing in France where he was a Listed winner over 2000m and is yet to be extended beyond that journey.
While he will head into Saturday’s race off a month’s break between runs, he has been kept up to the mark with a solid barrier trial win under regular rider Tim Clark.
“He trialled during the week and he was excellent. He trialled really well,” Bott said.
“I’m looking forward to getting him through to that race.”
Eliyass is a $6 favourite for the Metropolitan and a $15 chance for the Caulfield Cup.
The Kingston Town Stakes is one of several features on a Randwick card that includes the $1m 7 Stakes (1600m), headlined by Fangirl, the $1m Group 2 The Shorts (1100m) featuring leading The Everest hopes Bella Nipotina and Private Eye and the Group 2 Tea Rose Stakes (1400m), which will be the next start for star filly Autumn Glow.