Cruden Bay’s fans will be pleased to know the classy colt remains in Australia and will campaign in Melbourne this Spring Racing Carnival. The untapped youngster raised eyebrows with an emphatic Listed St Albans Stakes win at Moonee Valley in mid-March, after which trainer Anthony Freedman pointed out that he was owned in Singapore and was a chance to be heading there to continue his career.

But Freedman said this morning that the son of Not a Single Doubt, whose only other start produced a 3-3/4-length Bendigo maiden win on debut, was back in his Flemington stable being readied for a spring campaign.

Freedman is delighted with the specimen Cruden Bay has developed into and while he has not yet decided whether to keep him to sprint trips or try and stretch him out to a mile, his first target is the Danehill Stakes.

 “He’s strengthened up into a nice three-year-old, but we’ve still got to see if he’s up to it,” Freedman said.

“He’ll trial in a few weeks. I’m not sure what he’ll run in first up, but I’d like to run him in the Danehill.”

The $220,000 Group 2 Danehill Stakes (1200m) will be decided on 7 September. It is run up the Flemington straight, as is the $500,000 Coolmore Stud Stakes, which would be the most logical Group 1 option for Cruden Bay if he was kept to sprinting.

The $1 million BECK Caulfield Guineas, which is over 1600m, will be run at Caulfield on 12 October.