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A freak paddock accident robbed staying bred filly Allinthistogether of a potential Oaks campaign this season but trainer Mark Newnham hopes she can begin to make up for lost time with a positive debut at Canterbury on Wednesday.
The daughter of Shocking first appeared at the trials in May last year but injured herself while spelling, missing what would have been a typical Newnham spring campaign and she only resurfaced publicly last month.
"I thought she would develop into a really nice filly, I was hopeful she would be an Oaks horse,'' Newnham said.
"We've missed all of that now so we have to see what we can turn her into from here.
"She has a big scar on one of her hind legs where she stripped a whole bunch of skin off her cannon bone. It's taken a long time to come right, hence the big break."
Allinthistogether, $3.30 with TAB on Tuesday, steps out in the XXXX Plate (1250m) at Canterbury on the back of two trials in May, the latest an impressive victory at Randwick over 1050m on May 28.
Newnham said while she will obviously excel over a bit more ground there are pluses to making a city debut, not the least being able to use Josh Parr who has been on board in her recent trials, instead of sending her to the provincials first-up.
And he's not ruling out making an eye-catching debut.
"I'd expect she would settle somewhere in the middle of them and be hitting the line strongly,'' he said.
"She might find 1250m at Canterbury a bit sharp but I wanted to run her in a nice competitive race where they will go a strong gallop and that will be a good education.
"It still gives her a chance to run over the top of them."
Dragonstone is another Newnham debutant at Canterbury in the Blue Point @ Darley Handicap (1100m) and the youngster could be described as something of an ugly duckling at the moment.
Though his trial form looks good on paper, and his recent fast finishing second in a Randwick trial was pleasing to the eye, Newnham said the gelding has plenty to learn.
"He's only a little, plain, horse and I say that with the utmost respect for his ability,'' he said.
"He goes quite well, he's still a little new and green and because he's only small I didn't want to trial him again and bottom him out.
"I thought it best to just get him to the races and let his natural ability take him a long way."
Last Friday Newnham made a point of riding Dragonstone ($3.70) in a jump out to try to work out why he's been a shade slowly away in his trials.
He surmised the horse was being distracted by something, or not concentrating, and hopes it can be resolved with experience and a little help in the stalls.
"He might need someone to sit up with him, get an attendant to hold his head straight,'' he said.
"He tends to move around a bit, he's not standing as quietly as he should."
Honest front-runner Montserrat is closing in on a win and Newnham hopes that comes in the TAB Handicap (1900m) so he can make the transition to Saturday company and the bigger tracks that come with it.
The four-year-old drops 4kg on his last start second to Vigorous Flow over the same course two weeks ago.
"The only hesitation I have with him is he's such a big striding horse so Canterbury is not his track but it's the most suitable race for him at the moment,'' Newnham said.
"There's a race in 10 days at Rosehill over 1800m and hopefully he can push his way into Saturday grade. He will be hard to beat because he's fully fit now and comes down in weight."
