Long campaign drawing to an end for Duke

Tuesday 14 July 2015, 3:32pm

A long campaign looks to be drawing to an end for Majestic Duke who runs at Flemington looking to maintain his strike rate.

Victory would give him a hat-trick after success at Moonee Valley on June 6 and Flemington three weeks later.

The Flemington win was Majestic Duke's sixth from his past eight outings and Terry O'Sullivan, who trains the gelding in partnership with his daughter Karina, said Saturday's Benchmark 90 race over 1600m was likely to be his last for the immediate future.

Majestic Duke began his campaign in December and commenced a run of three successive wins at Terang in a Benchmark 64 race in February.

He was successful at Warrnambool during the May three-day carnival before a disappointing display at Flemington on May 23 after which he recorded his last two impressive wins.

O'Sullivan said Steven Arnold, who won on the gelding at Moonee Valley, would be reunited with the four-year-old.

The son of Churchill Downs has freshened up well since his latest win but the trainer is mindful of the long campaign.

"He had from the Monday to the Friday in the paddock following his last win," O'Sullivan said.

"It was a nice little break for him and he's done really well since.

"We've been playing along with him as he's kept stepping up to the mark and done a really good job this prep.

"But it's more than likely he'll go for a bit of a break as he's been in for a while and had a good few runs, but we'll make a decision after he races."

Majestic Duke has stretched his record to seven wins from 20 starts and victory on Saturday will take his prizemoney beyond $200,000.

The O'Sullivans will also be represented by Melaleuca in the Wilson Medic One Rising Stars Final (1800m).

Melaleuca will be ridden by Jessica Payne, who racked up her 50th winner at Echuca on Monday.

O'Sullivan said Melaleuca would appreciate the rise to 1800m on Saturday after her last-start fifth at Moonee Valley on June 20.

– AAP

Latest News

Prime Thoroughbreds - We have a Host of Leaders in our Team

Tuesday, 29 June 2021

Prime Thor­ough­bred’s cur­rent rac­ing team is putt­ing to­gether quite a re­cord. We have 22 hors­es that have raced in our team at pre­sent. Six­teen of th­ese are win­n­ers in­clud­ing the Stakes win­n­ing trio Ru­bisa­ki, Fituese and Xtreme­time with Miss Di­vine Em and Miss In Charge run­n­ing 4th in Stakes races. This sees a stakes win­n­er to win­n­er ra­tio of 18.75% with a stake’s per­formed to win­n­er ra­tio of 31.25%. Th­ese are ex­cep­tio­n­al fig­ures.   More »

Freedmans land maiden Group One win

Saturday, 27 February 2021

Un­der-rat­ed fil­ly For­bid­den Love has emerged as an au­tumn car­ni­val smokey with a bril­liant per­for­mance to win the Sur­round Stakes at Rand­wick.  More »

Capriccio completes Damian Lane treble

Saturday, 27 February 2021

In a big day for coun­try-trained hors­es, War­r­nam­bool fil­ly Capric­cio has tak­en out the In­glis Dash for Daniel Bow­man.  More »

More news headlines »