Trial to keep Cepheus on track ahead of The Ingham

A wet track prompted Matt Dunn to scratch Cepheus from Saturday’s $1 million The Gong but the in-form import’s campaign is not over.

The last-start Big Dance runner-up will head to the $2 million The Ingham (1600m) at Randwick on December 9 with a trial on Tuesday to keep him up to the mark.

“Obviously his form on wet tracks is no good and I didn’t want to risk him,” Dunn said

“He will now trial at Randwick on Tuesday and he’ll go straight to The Ingham from there.

“He has been up for a long time, he just needs to tick over and a soft, easy trial on Tuesday, that will just sharpen him back up for The Ingham in a couple of weeks.”

The $3m The Big Dance, in which Cepheus was beaten 1-1/4 lengths by Attractable, was the 13th start this year for the seven-year-old, who won the Group 2 Shannon Stakes (1500m) and $1.5m Alan Brown Stakes (1400m) earlier in the preparation.

Cepheus was one of the leading fancies for The Gong, which was won by Detonator Jack in dominant style, and Dunn is expecting to meet a field of similar quality field in The Ingham, which he said has always been a target for Cepheus.

“You’d think it would attract a similar field with maybe a couple of extras thrown in, horses that maybe went to Perth,” Dunn said.

“That was always going to be the plan.”