Jessica kicks off Cup campaign

By Mathew Toogood

SYDNEY, Sept 1 AAP - The Tramway Handicap is expected to be short of Jessicabeel's best but trainer John O'Shea believes she has returned in great order for her Melbourne Cup preparation.

The five-year-old Zabeel mare resumes in Saturday's Group Three event over 1400m at Randwick in her first start since becoming a Group One winner of the Sydney Cup (3200m) in April.

Jessicabeel will be joined in the Tramway by stablemate Snapy Halo, who hasn't raced since his sixth in the Doncaster Mile.

O'Shea said all the indications were that Jessicabeel had returned an improved mare this time in work.

"We haven't seen the barriers or the way the track is playing and all that sort of thing yet, but on a fair track I expect her to be hitting the line strongly on Saturday," O'Shea said.

"I just expect her to run well because I couldn't be happier with her."

Jessicabeel really came of age as a stayer in the autumn.

After finishing ninth first-up in a 1400m race at Rosehill she then ran third in both the Listed Aspiration Quality (1600m) and Epona Stakes (1900m) before winning the Group Two Chairman's Handicap (2600m) and Group One Sydney Cup (3200m).

"The form around her is good and she's made good improvement as you would expect from a five-year-old Zabeel mare," O'Shea said.

"She's continued an upward spiral and she's a bigger and stronger mare."

Jessicabeel was given 52.5kg for the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups when weights were released on Wednesday while stablemate Zabrasive was given 53kg.

"That's exactly what we expected," O'Shea said.

"Jessicabeel carried 52 kilos in the Sydney Cup when she was probably entitled to carry 48 with what she'd done. She was dominant in good time and 52.5 is a weight where we're still going to be competitive."

Snapy Halo's sixth in the Group One Doncaster Mile showed the six-year-old entire had the capability to be competitive in good races again this spring with O'Shea looking at some of the feature 1600m races as possible targets.

"He has run sixth in a very, very strong Doncaster, beaten just over two and a half lengths and that itself is going to have him in the mix (in some good races)," O'Shea said.

The trainer said Snapy Halo was still "pretty burly" and would improve with racing under his belt heading towards races like the Epsom Handicap in Sydney or Toorak Handicap in Melbourne.

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