French import to step out on Saturday

While most of the attention will be on the $2.5 million BMW Caulfield Cup (2400m) on Saturday, trainer Danny O'Brien is eagerly looking forward to seeing how his imported galloper Prairie Star performs in the $150,000 David Jones Cup (2000m).

While Prairie Star is only chasing a small prize compared what some of the other imports will be fighting for in the main race of the day, Saturday may well be a springboard for a bigger pay day later in the spring.

At his last start at Deauville in late August, Prairie Star finished at the tail of the field, but the son of Peintre Celebre has continued to improve from the day he set foot in quarantine in England and O'Brien is hopeful that he will turn up in his best form at Caulfield.

"I thought he worked very well this morning and if he takes that work to the races then he should be very competitive," O'Brien said.

Prairie Star, which boasts a Group 2 win in France last season over 2200m and was placed twice in Group company over 3100m prior to his last start failure, has been given top weight of 59kgs in the David Jones Cup, with Ben Melham taking the ride.

O'Brien has several options later in the spring for Prairie Star, with the five-year-old's performance on Saturday providing the impetus for where that will be.

"I'm not ruling anything out at the moment. There's the Moonee Valley Cup or at Flemington there's the Lexus and Mackinnon. I want him to show us (where he's going)," O'Brien said.

By Andrew Garvey, to view full story on Racing Victoria website click here