Thursday's Country Magic Association Class 6 Showcase Plate in Grafton looms as make or break for Ice In Vancouver in terms of the three-year-old's preparations for The Kosciuszko, according to trainer Cody Morgan.
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"It'll be a good yard stick. I'm not going over there saying he'll bolt in but he needs to win. If he don't win that, he can still win races, but he's not going to The Kosciuszko," the Tamworth trainer said.
Morgan desperately wants to take the three-year-old back to the $1.3 million-race after Ice In Vancouver gained a slot in the 2020 event - which was won by Brett Cavanough's It's Me - before things went amiss during the race.
"He had a heart arrhythmia, which is just a one in a million thing," Morgan said.
"Ever since that happened, I just wanted to get him back to that race for the owners."
Morgan aimed the lightly-raced gelding at the Grafton race after seeing last year's fifth-placegetter in The Kosciuszko take out the Class 6 race.
"It's a race that Two Big Fari won last year and gave him a good springboard to get into The Kosciuszko. That was why I felt I wanted to showcase him in a similar race," Morgan said.
With tickets for The Kosciuszko going on sale at the start of July, Morgan said things were starting to ramp up in the lead-up to the race to be run on Everest Day on October 16.
Ice In Vancouver isn't the only horse that Morgan thinks could line up in The Kosciuszko.
Morgan also rated his other horses Mo's Crown, Edit, Wren's Day and Macleay as chances to gain a slot.
Ben Jaffrey
Ben is a content curator and journalist for The Land. He has been with ACM since 2015 and first worked at The Area News and then at the Northern Daily Leader. Ben first joined ACM Agri as a digital journalist for all seven agricultural mastheads in 2022 before shifting to The Land full-time in 2023.
Ben is a content curator and journalist for The Land. He has been with ACM since 2015 and first worked at The Area News and then at the Northern Daily Leader. Ben first joined ACM Agri as a digital journalist for all seven agricultural mastheads in 2022 before shifting to The Land full-time in 2023.
