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Cape Of Good Hope and Constantinople line up together in the Listed Heatherlie Stakes at Caulfield.

Irish-bred Cape Of Good Hope has been a cause of frustration for Lindsay Park but the stable is hopeful a set of blinkers may switch the entire on. 

Cape Of Good Hope and his imported stablemate Constantinople line up together in the Listed Heatherlie Stakes (1700m) at Caulfield on Saturday. 

The pair arrived to much fanfare ahead of last year's Melbourne spring carnival and produced exceptional first-up Australian performances. 

However their subsequent performances have been below par. 

Cape Of Good Hope won the Group One Caulfield Stakes first-up for Lindsay Park last October, but in his following five performances has finished nearer the tail than first. 

Constantinople was desperately unlucky in the Caulfield Cup when fourth behind Japanese galloper Mer De Glace, but has failed to flatter in three subsequent runs. 

Lindsay Park co-trainer Tom Dabernig said the stable could find no reason for Cape Of Good Hope's last-placed finish in the P B Lawrence Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield on August 15. 

"I couldn't find a physical reason for his run other than he pulled up coughing and he swallowed some dirt which was confirmed when we got him scoped," Dabernig said. 

"We gave him a pretty searching hit-out at the farm on Monday and he worked quite well, but on his form it will take a really big turnaround. 

"We've put blinkers on him and we're going in hopeful, rather than confident." 

Constantinople has not been seen since beating two home in the Group One Australian Cup (2000m) at Flemington in March. 

Dabernig said Constantinople had been gelded as well as undergoing a throat operation since that performance. 

"He seems to be coming along well but It's more of a conditioning run to get him up to a trip," Dabernig said. 

"We're hoping he'll be competitive and is hitting the line, but he will improve out of the run." 

Dabernig is hoping Constantinople can put his hand up to be a Caulfield Cup and Melbourne Cup contender, as he was last year, but his form will dictate that. 

"We might look at the Naturalism, the Bart Cummings, but his target races will be formulated depending on what sort of form he's in," Dabernig said. 

With Constantinople's current rating of 107, and Cape Of Good Hope's 108, Dabernig said the pair need to compete in the higher end races. 

"It's hard with these ratings for both those horses as they've pretty much got to race in these types of races," he said.