Kincaple right for Melbourne
Mark Webb will launch Kalgoorlie Cup winner Kincaple's Melbourne spring campaign against smart stayer Puissance De Lune in Saturday's $200,000 PB Lawrence Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield.
Kincaple is the 60kg topweight in a 1600m handicap on the same card, but Webb said yesterday he had decided to go into the Lawrence first-up.
Leading jockey Dwayne Dunn will ride the Pentire gelding, who meets his rivals on level weights at 59kg under the race's weight-for-age conditions.
Connections had hoped to have Kincaple run in the Adelaide Cup (3200m) in March, but the nine-year-old experienced mild travel sickness and the plans were aborted.
Webb last week entered Kincaple in the $3 million Caulfield Cup (2400m), but said connections would have a better guide as to how high they could aim with the horse.
"We have mapped out three paths - high, medium and low, and we should know by his second or third assignments where we are at," Webb said.
"He has had a good and long preparation and is now set for his campaign.
"His trackwork has been really good and he has had a couple of good trials.
"He is not fully wound up for a first-up run, but give him a few runs into his prep and we should see what he can do.
"He is an old horse under a lot of management and his best will be up around 2000m."
Adam Durrant revived Kincaple to win last year's Strickland Stakes (2000m) at Belmont and run second to Ihtsahymn in the Cox Stakes (2100m) before he finished 13th of 16 behind Black Tycoon in the Perth Cup (2400m) at his last start on January 1.
Kincaple is only lightly raced, boasting eight wins and 11 placings from his 33 starts for earnings of $498,692.
·The Pinjarra track has been cleared to host racing on Thursday after two horses worked over the grass watched by stewards and jockeys yesterday.
Stewards and riders examined the track last week but had concerns over a few damp areas.
Yesterday the horses were galloped over the areas of concern and the track was deemed safe.
He has had a good and long preparation …"Mark Webb
