Arabian Gold still blooming for Roses bid

Friday 16 May 2014, 12:56pm

Arabian Gold, a clear-cut favourite for The Roses at Doomben on Saturday, will confirm a rating as one of Australia's most durable three-year-old fillies in recent seasons if she can win the lead-up to the Queensland Oaks.

The David Vandyke-trained grey arrived in Brisbane on Thursday having raced successfully at stakes level at spring carnivals in two cities before winning twice during the Sydney autumn.

In modern times, few horses are asked to deliver on four different carnival stages during a season but Vandyke insists he has seen nothing since Arabian Gold's Frank Packer Plate win to suggest she won't take her Sydney form to Queensland.

"She'll be up near the top of her game, that's for sure," Vandyke said.

"If she can pull this off she would have run second to Guelph in the spring in Sydney, she would have won a stakes race in Melbourne, two stakes races in Sydney (in the autumn) and a stakes race in Brisbane.

"I don't know if there is any other horse that has been able to do that this season. I don't know who has competed at all four carnivals."

Vandyke adjusted Arabian Gold's training timetable this week to accommodate a 12-hour float trip from his Warwick Farm stable to Queensland by giving her a searching gallop on Wednesday.

"Normally I would gallop her on a Tuesday but I didn't want to work her when I got up to Queensland," he said.

"I thought if I gave her a good gallop on Wednesday she wouldn't have to work on Thursday or Friday and there would be nothing worse than having her tie-up or something."

Arabian Gold heads markets on the Group Two race at $2.30 after drawing the rails as she attempts a hat-trick of 2000m stakes wins off Group Three Sydney victories in the Adrian Knox Stakes and the Frank Packer Plate last month.

Her fitness levels were maintained with a Randwick barrier trial placing last week and Vandyke confirmed she was on target to run in the $400,000 Queensland Oaks on May 31.

– AAP

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