The presence of Australia’s champion mare makes Moonee Valley a highly unlikely spring destination for a quartet of Group One performers from Cambridge.

“While Winx is around the Cox Plate is very much a back-up plan,” said Andrew Forsman, who trains in partnership with Murray Baker. “The Caulfield Cup is more the focus.”

He was referring to their spring contenders Bonneval, Eleonora, Jon Snow and Lizzie L’Amour who, along with the three-year-old Weather With You, are Melbourne-bound although their departure date is yet to be confirmed.

“It’s a bit week to week at the moment with the wet weather,” Forsman said. “They could fly out on either August 20 or 27.

“Bonneval is doing as well as she can and once she gets to Melbourne she will really improve.

“Jon Snow has strengthened up a lot, he has gone to another level. There’s no reason he can’t reach the heights of Mongolian Khan.

“He is likely to resume in the (New Zealand Bloodstock) Memsie Stakes. He’s more forward and the fastest of the others and he could run a cheeky fresh-up 1400, although now it’s $1 million there’ll be a few handy ones there.

“Bonneval will most likely kick off in the Dato Tan Chin Nam or the Makybe Diva the following week.”
Lizzie L’Amour has also thrilled her connections with her condition.

“She’s by Zabeel out of a Sadler’s Wells mare so she’s bred to stay and she’s already a Group One winner at weight-for-age over 2000m,” Forsman said.

“There’s a lot of improvement in her and she’s coming up a treat. Once the cups come around she could get a piece of it.

“Eleonora only had a couple of starts in the autumn. She was meant to go to Sydney for the Oaks, but she was injured. A Cups campaign will be her go and we might look at fillies and mares’ races early on to ease her into it.”

The lightly-tried Weather With You was stakes placed last season in the Listed Champagne Stakes and is considered a Gr.1 VRC Derby prospect.

“He’s a son of Teofilo who we’ve got a lot of time for. Hopefully, he measures up,” Forsman said.