A four-year-old yet to reach his peak will contest the inaugural Melbourne Cup Carnival Country Series on Thursday.
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Frankly Harvey, from the Ledger stable in Wangaratta, will run the $200,000 BM80 Handicap (1600m) on Oaks Day.
“He’s an up and coming horse that hasn’t reached his peak yet,” John Ledger said.
“He started off winning a couple of nice ones very early in his career and then we tried him over a bit of distance, but he didn’t stay the 2000 at Flemington, so he went for a spell.”
Since returning from that three-month break, the gelding posted successive seventh-place finishes at Benalla and Cranbourne before winning the $50,000 Country Series heat at Seymour on October 22.
“He’s raced quite well again, so I think he’s got a lot of upside to him,” Ledger said.
“I don’t think he’s reached the top of his career yet by a long way, he’s just a horse in progress is the best way to describe him.”
Jockey Michael Dee guided Frankly Harvey to the Seymour win, lifting the horse’s prizemoney to $77,000.
“We find that he’s better off on two to three weeks between runs rather than racing too often,” Ledger said.
“Some horses are just like that, they can’t back up on a heavy workload, so you’ve got to nurture them a little bit.
“They can be out in the paddock for a few days between runs and keep them really happy, but if you over-race them they tend to become one-paced or very disinterested.”
Eligibility is restricted to Victorian trainers who don’t have a metropolitan training base with the top two from the eight heats winning through to the final.
The race replaces a feature of the Oaks Day program.
“The Melbourne Cup Carnival Country Series reinvigorates country racing’s link with VRC Oaks Day and will provide Victorian country trainers and their connections with the unique chance to compete in a $200,000 final on one of Victoria’s most famous race days,” Racing Victoria’s Greg Carpenter said.