The Big Dance carrot tempts Vampires to go for the Gosford Cup

Les Vampires has been withdrawn from The Coast (1600m) and will instead line up in Saturday’s Gosford Gold Cup (2100m) with the connections targeting a Big Dance slot later in the year.

Trainer Adrian Bott believes the longer race offers a better fit for the gelding, who stepped out beyond a mile last start and responded well.

“We started to put him out in trip last start and he did a good job in that regard. He is probably better suited going further out in trip at this stage of his preparation, rather than trying to come back to a sharper mile,” Bott said.

“It will be a new test for him in grade and distance. We probably won’t run him too much past Saturday, he has done a good job, but it would open up a few nice options for him as well.

“Obviously it’s a Big Dance qualifier and that would be a great race for him down the road if he was able to feature on Saturday.”

Les Vampires returned to racing this year after nearly 12 months off due to throat surgery, having placed in the 2024 Hobartville Stakes (1400m) prior to his setback. He has shown strong form since, winning over 1800m at Randwick with a brave front-running display.

He’ll be joined in the Cup by stablemate New Endeavour, who placed behind Bois D’Argent in the JRA Plate (2000m) last start and has benefited from a freshen-up.

“He’s had a short freshen up between runs and hopefully that’s the key, keeping him a little bit fresh,” Bott said.

“This distance should also help as well so it might be a nice race for him and we can see what’s in store for him after Saturday.”

Townsend will fly the Tulloch Lodge flag in The Coast. After racing keenly and tiring late in his first-up outing, improvement is expected over the mile.

“Even the mile is short of his best but I think you’ll see a big improvement on his first-up run anyway,” Bott said.

“He will be trying to get out in trip later in the campaign. Potentially there are a couple of nice races in Queensland, unless he sticks around in Sydney for any of those winter Cups races, but he was getting out to those sort of trips last preparation and he was effective.”

With Saturday’s standalone Gosford meeting set to provide Big Dance pointers, punters can get in early by checking out the best offers via our Australian betting sites page.