Trainer David Odlum is willing to sacrifice a shot at short-term glory for long-term gain with Presidential Belle.
The talented Cambridge pacing mare will be favourite for the feature race at her local meeting tonight after a string of impressive wins this campaign.
Now the winner of sevenraces, Presidential Belle was on target to tackle the group one $100,000 Queen Of Hearts at Alexandra Park on Friday night but Odlum says he has an even bigger goal.
"I'd love to have her in the Queen Of Hearts but my real goal all along has been the Harness Jewels with her," said Odlum.
At the moment she is about fourth on the table to make it into that series and if she can win this week she will be all but qualified," he said of the stakes-based series.
"So while I'd love to go around in the Queen Of Hearts it has open class horses we probably can't beat and that won't help us get to the Jewels.
"So she will race here this week and we can look at the four-year-old mares race at Alexandra Park the week after.
"Then she can have a short break, come back up and we can just hope she can get in the Jewels and draw well."
Presidential Belle gets into tonight's 2700m event with a 10m advantage in the handicaps because she is a mare and Odlum says even though the race will be her first standing start, that is actually a strength.
"She is very quick from the stand," he said. "We are confident she will be hard to beat."
The field is not an easy one but with key contenders like High Flyin and Stoney Creek off handicaps and the class act of the race, Seelster Mike, not having raced for a long time, Presidential Belle is clearly the one to beat.
Odlum thinks he can train a double tonight with Iola May looking to redeem herself in race nine.
The speedy mare galloped in the score-up last start and then raced ungenerously before finishing fourth.
"We have worked on her gear and hopefully she will behave better this week," he said. "If she does she will be hard to beat because she is quite a good filly."
