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Epicus has come a long way since joining Kristen Buchanan mid-preparation and the Wyong trainer hopes she’s found a nice race to stage a distance experiment as she winds up his campaign at Canterbury on Wednesday.
The gelding was formerly with the Chris Waller yard and was purchased via an online sale and switched stables as a maiden but has hit his straps with two wins from his past three starts.
Kristen Buchanan considered running in the Grafton Guineas but with only five rivals in the Bowermans Handicap (1550m) heading to Sydney was the way to go.
"It is a nice stepping stone,'' she said.
"We definitely considered the Grafton option but in terms of protecting his benchmark this was the right way to go.
"We'll tip him out after this and I think he will definitely get to Midway level. He's still progressing."
The three-year-old, $2.70 with TAB on Tuesday, led all the way to win over 1400m at Newcastle about three weeks ago but Buchanan said her preference would be not to lead.
She's not concerned if Zac Lloyd has to take it up but given Epicus is on trial at the distance she'd like the horse to have every chance to run it out strongly.
"Always the Plan A with him is to get a bit of cover,'' she said.
"But when you put the good riders on they can go to Plan B and that's what Jean (Van Overmeire) did the other day.
"It is a bit experimental because he can go a bit hard so we will have a look at him and it will give us guidance as to whether we should stick to 1400m.
"Canterbury is definitely the track to try it at rather than Grafton over a mile. It opens up options if he can run it so we'll try to ease him in and work it out."
Buchanan has emerging galloper Oakfield Waratah pencilled in as a Four Pillars hopeful beyond Saturday's Midway Handicap (1600m) at Randwick on Saturday.
The four-year-old won a Midway at Rosehill in June then stepped out of that restriction to run a game third behind Resonator and Gracilistyla on July 1.
"His last run was out of Midway grade and he ran a good race, he's just tracking along nicely and a nice barrier on Saturday would be good,'' she said.
She's aiming for back to back wins in the $500,000 Midway feature on Golden Eagle Day after taking out last year's edition with Oakfield Arrow.
