Warrnambool trainer Matthew Williams has thrown lightly-raced five-year-old Uxorious in at the deep end by running him in the Group Three Aurie's Star Handicap at Flemington.Williams was going to run Uxorious in a restricted event at Sandown next Wednesday but when that meeting was transferred to the Geelong synthetic track he decided to take the plunge and start the Choisir gelding in Saturday's $150,000 1200m feature.Uxorious won his first three starts at Warrnambool, Ballarat and Sandown, all
Warrnambool trainer Matthew Williams has thrown lightly-raced five-year-old Uxorious in at the deep end by running him in the Group Three Aurie's Star Handicap at Flemington.
Williams was going to run Uxorious in a restricted event at Sandown next Wednesday but when that meeting was transferred to the Geelong synthetic track he decided to take the plunge and start the Choisir gelding in Saturday's $150,000 1200m feature.
Uxorious won his first three starts at Warrnambool, Ballarat and Sandown, all over 1200m, before going down by just a half-head to Papercut over 1100m on a heavy track on his home track at the May carnival and hasn't raced since.
Williams said he was happy for Uxorious to run at Flemington on what on Friday was rated a slow (7) track.
"He'd always shown a bit of ability but he had chips taken out of his knee as a three-year-old and he came to us after that," the trainer said of Uxorious who was originally with leading trainer Peter Moody but didn't race for him.
"In the long run a bit of time has done him the world of good. He's a lovely, big, strong horse now and apart from the knee he's very sound and he's had three trials this time around."
While Uxorious has led in each of his four starts, Williams said he would be ridden more quietly on Saturday.
"Last time around it was a bit of a worry the way he was wanting to charge into the bridle but Sebastian Murphy has done some work with him at the trials and he's settling off the speed now and that's how we hope to ride him tomorrow," he said.
Nick Hall will ride Uxorious for the first time on Saturday and the gelding will race with a norton bit on.
Meanwhile, Moody indicated that Group One Coolmore Stud Stakes winner Headway would take her place provided the track was not too rain-affected.
"I'd probably be happy to run her today. It just depends on what happens overnight," said Moody who will talk to owner Tony Santic before confirming a start.
"If the track is slow she'll probably take her place.
"She's fit and well and forward enough for it but I just didn't want her to have a gut-busting run on a heavy 9 or 10 to give her an excuse to not perform down the track."
Headway, runner-up in the 2009 Golden Slipper on a heavy track, is the class runner of the field.
Moody said she was not at her best last autumn but she was still quite competitive at the elite level when fifth in the Lightning Stakes, seventh in the Oakleigh Plate and sixth in the Newmarket Handicap.
With Luke Nolen in England for the Shergar Cup international jockeys' challenge at Ascot, Damien Oliver will ride the Charge Forward four-year-old who is $3.70 favourite with TAB Sportsbet.
Uxorious is at $15.