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The Darren Weir-trained Mahuta will finally make his return to the track after a 33-week spell that has seen the horse out of action since September of last year.
Coming off a less than ideal spring campaign that ended in injury, Weir and the connections are confident that he is race ready once again.
“It’s been a frustrating six months not having him out there for the spring after he got injured,” said Leigh Saville, co-owner and part of the Roll The Dice Racing syndicate.
“The time in the paddock has ensured that he is now 100 per cent.
“He has really come along the last four weeks. His action is great and Darren (Weir) couldn’t be happier with him leading into Saturday.”
The four-year-old’s career shot out of the gates, going on a six-race winning streak through the back end of 2015 and into the start of 2016, leaving him with an enviable record of 6-1 from just eight starts.
His victorious run came to an end at the Australian Guineas in March last year when he got trapped in traffic having sat one saddle back from the lead for three-quarters of the race.
Once he had to pull up to find galloping room back behind the leaders, he was swamped and fell from third inside the final 400 to second last and an ugly 14th place finish on the record.
Following a near five-month spell after the defeat, Mahuta managed two place finishes from four starts throughout the autumn and spring campaigns where Weir put him up against older fields.
The last of those four starts was the point of injury that has been a big factor in keeping him out of action.
In similar fashion to the aforementioned Australian Guineas, he pulled up lame after sitting second inside the final 400 metres of the Dato’ Tan Chin Nam Stakes at Moonee Valley in September.
Although this time, Mahuta suffered a hairline fracture in the pelvis as Michael Dee limped him home.
Having spent much of the last six months in the stables at Warrnambool, the son of Vahine and Flying Spur will finally box into the barriers once again this Saturday.
He’ll be tested on a shorter distance than usual – over 1100 metres – as Weir looks to ease him back in with this first up run in the Bel Esprit Stakes at Caulfield.
It’ll be tough to tell what kind of outing is in store after such a long break, but he has two wins and a place finish from four first-up starts so the fresh legs might do him well.
The four-year-old has a touch under $2 million career prize money thanks to those six wins, holding a record of 6-1-2 from 13 starts.
The likely path for Mahuta is a trip north after the run on Saturday and a few runs at Brisbane, with Weir keeping a keen eye on the Stradbroke Handicap in particular for later in the year.
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