David Hayes has pencilled in next month's Memsie Stakes as the first-up assignment for his exciting comeback galloper Jet Away.
After an eye-catching fourth in last year’s Caulfield Cup, Jet Away started favourite in the $1 million Mackinnon Stakes (2000m) at Flemington on Derby Day, but ran sixth and was later found to have badly injured a tendon.
He has been undergoing rehabilitation programs at Hayes’s Euroa property for the past eight months, and Hayes says he is now galloping twice a week.
“He's having two good gallops a week and we’ll kick him off in the Memsie,” Hayes told Racing Network on Monday.
The Group 1 $400,000 Memsie Stakes (1400m) will be run at Caulfield on August 30, which gives Hayes five weeks to get Jet Away ready for that assignment.
“His leg is great – you wouldn’t know he had an issue there,” Hayes said.
“It would be terrific to have him back to where he was because he’s a very, very good galloper and he could win a big one during the spring if he finds his best form,” Hayes said.