Spring Eagle set to strike at Caulfield

Trainer Gavin Bedggood says Spring Eagle has not been afforded the ideal preparation leading into his city debut at Caulfield.

A debut winner at Sale last month, Spring Eagle missed a run at Sandown a fortnight ago while he was forced to miss a jump-out at Cranbourne during the week.

But Bedggood says Spring Eagle has done enough work to contest the McCafe Handicap (1000m) on Saturday.

“He was in at Sandown two weeks ago, but he had dirty scope on the Thursday morning, so we elected to bypass that race,” Bedggood said.

“He would have been right to go on the Saturday morning as he scoped clean then, but we had to treat him, so we erred on the side of caution.

“The race last weekend (at Flemington) was 1400 metres, so we elected to wait another week.

“Other than the dirty scope, the horse has been in great order.

“But with the month between runs, I would have liked to have given him a quiet jump-out on Monday morning, but our jump-outs at Cranbourne were moved to the synthetic, so I decided to wait.”

“Its 1000 metres, he’s done enough work and he’ll be competitive there again.”

Spring Eagle got under Bedggood’s guard on debut at Sale where he was a big drifter in the betting.

Settling rearwards, Spring Eagle sprinted quickly when clear to score a three-quarter-of-a-length victory.

That was on a Slow 5 track, the same rating the Caulfield track was on Friday morning, although showers are expected throughout the day.

“He was quite dynamic in his turn of foot and put them away well at Sale,” Bedggood said.

“He has trialled on rain-affected ground and has shown he is adept in the going. He has been on good ground as well, so I’m not too fazed by that.

“He’s got good ability, Saturday city class I think, but we’ll get through Saturday’s run first and see where we can aim up with him after that.”