Street Cry gelding Allanthus is set to give Melbourne Cup-winning trainer Brian Jenkins his third consecutive success in the Banjo Paterson Series Final at Flemington.Jenkins won the $150,000 event with Figure Of Speech the last two years and rates Allanthus as potentially a better stayer.Saturday's race will be only his second run this campaign but Jenkins is more concerned about the six-year-old's wide barrier than his fitness.Jenkins has conditioned Allanthus with two hurdle trials and is bac
Street Cry gelding Allanthus is set to give Melbourne Cup-winning trainer Brian Jenkins his third consecutive success in the Banjo Paterson Series Final at Flemington.
Jenkins won the $150,000 event with Figure Of Speech the last two years and rates Allanthus as potentially a better stayer.
Saturday's race will be only his second run this campaign but Jenkins is more concerned about the six-year-old's wide barrier than his fitness.
Jenkins has conditioned Allanthus with two hurdle trials and is backing him up after a four-length seventh to The Tiger when resuming over 2040 metres at Moonee Valley last week.
"He's fit enough," Jenkins said.
"You can get them fit in those hurdle trials without hurting them so I'm not worried about that, but the barrier draw makes it hard."
He said he would rely on jockey Dwayne Dunn's judgment whether to ride Allanthus forward or back from barrier 16 at the 2600m start.
Last spring Allanthus won the Bairnsdale Cup and rounded out his campaign with a third to My Bentley in the Ballarat Cup, but Jenkins believes the upcoming season will be his best.
"I wanted to give him a couple of winter races and then a three-week break so I can have him up for the spring," Jenkins said.
The Group Two Herbert Power Stakes, Group Three Geelong Cup and the Group Three The Lexus are earmarked as spring targets.
The Banjo Paterson winner passes the first balloting clause for the Melbourne Cup but Jenkins, who won the Cup with Jezabeel in 1998, isn't getting ahead of himself.
"We will put a Melbourne Cup nomination in for him but he would have to win a Lexus or Geelong Cup before we entertain running in that," Jenkins said.
Meanwhile, Heath Conners remains hopeful that the Banjo Paterson will end a frustrating run for Davcon who hasn't won for more than two years.
Last start Davcon looked home when he opened up a commanding lead turning for home in the fifth heat of the series at Flemington on June 25, only to be run down by Swooper.
Conners said Davcon was left in front too far from home after the leader Sermon compounded at the 600m.
"He had no option but to go when he did and he's run a terrific race," Conners said.
"It was a shame because he deserves to win one."