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Prolific stakes winner First Among Equals has returned to WA from his stint in Victoria and will have his first start for his new trainer Lindsey Smith at Ascot on Saturday.
Smith is the third trainer to prepare First Among Equal after he started his career in Perth with Simon Miller before joining the Darren Weir team in Victoria.
The seven-year-old had his first 28 starts for Miller, rising to the top echelon among Perth sprinters with 11 wins including four Listed wins before he was transferred to Weir.His 12 starts for the record-breaking trainer produced one win in the Listed Straight Six at Flemington last May before a spring campaign that yield placings in the G2 Bobbie Lewis and the G3 Kevin Heffernan Stakes at Sandown at his most recent start in November.
The Sandown placings came after First Among Equals required throat surgery for an entrapped epiglottis midway through his spring campaign in October.First Among Equals is set to start in Saturday’s Listed Miss Andretti Stakes (1100m) just two weeks after returning to WA.
“He’s come back for the Miss Andretti and another race after that,” Smith told the West Australian. “Darren Weir has done all the work with him.”Smith is also preparing his 2016 Railway Stakes winner Scales Of Justice for a return to racing after he missed the recent Ascot summer carnival due to a bruised hoof.
Smith has his sights on a start in the $3 million Doncaster Mile at Randwick in April for Scales Of Justice with Darren Weir set to play a part in his preparation.Smith said Scales Of Justice would start working in the clockwise direction this week with an early transfer to Weir on the agenda.
“We’ll fly him to Melbourne and he’ll go to Darren Weir’s for a bit then truck up to Newcastle to stay somewhere on the beach there,” Smith said.Scales Of Justice ran fifth in the G2 Lee-Steere Stakes (1400m) and third in the G3 Colonel Reeves Stakes (1100m) in November before the hoof problem ruled him out of the G1 features at the Ascot carnival in November and December.
Scales Of Justice had been sidelined for 12 months before resuming in October after undergoing spinal surgery.Smith has also advised the owners of Prize Catch to consider switching him to Melbourne after his last start third in the G2 Perth Cup (2400m) on January 5.
“My advice was to send him to Melbourne. He’s rated 95 now so there aren’t a lot races for him here,” Smith said.