There are motherhood plans afoot for three of Margaret Lee's talented mares, but in the meantime she's plotting more success with the Keayang tribe on Friday night.
Lee will prepare Keayang Secret, Keayang Shekitout (pictured) and Keayang Ebonyrose for the Allied Express Melton Mares Championship, a race carrying a $24,000 prize purse for horses rated between 70 and 99.
“The three mares are all bound for stud,” Lee said. “Keayang Shekitout is in foal, Keayang Ebonyrose is being served as well and they are all on that road to being mums. Keayang Secret is not in foal at the moment, but that’s what we are kind of looking at.”
A fractured leg and bone bruising issues have limited Keayang Secret to just four starts since July 2017, but her two runs back from more than a year away from the track have been encouraging.
The daughter of Always A Virgin returned to the races with victory at Tabcorp Park Melton on November 22 before last weekend’s second placing at the same circuit when run down by Mick Stanley’s talented Soho Nolita.
As far as the market is concerned, Keayang Secret is the best of Lee’s chances this Friday night and the Terang horsewoman agrees.
“I thought she went super (last Saturday). She just had a pretty handy mare sitting on her back,” Lee said.
“Being that second run (back from a spell), we probably needed it. She’s probably cherry ripe.”
Jason Lee will take the drive on Keayang Secret from barrier three and looks likely to find the top in the early stages of the 2240m race.
Glen Craven will steer Keayang Shekitout, who will have to come from outside the back row in barrier nine. The daughter of Rocknroll Hanover finished last in the weekend’s Stawell Pacing Cup, beaten nearly 20m by winner Emain Macha.
“It probably wasn’t quite up with her usual standard, but we had a chiropractor work on her this week and make some adjustments to her back, so hopefully we will see some improvement in her this run,” Lee said.
Keayang Ebonyrose will be partnered by Tim McLean and heads to Melton without a win since August.
“She’s probably the third string of our team,” Lee said.
Lee currently sits third in the Taylors Metropolitan Trainers’ Premiership with seven wins and has been thrilled with her start to the 2019-20 campaign, which has netted 15 victories from just 60 starters.
“It has been our best start to the season. We’ve just been lucky we’ve had some nice horses coming through and have got a great team of workers here that put the long hours in,” she said.
Premiership leader Emma Stewart has two of the main dangers to Lee’s chances on Friday night with Somerocksomeroll and Nostra Villa drawn barriers seven and eight respectively.