Joey Soma said a line could be drawn through Athina’s last run over 1200m and believed she was coming back to her best and peaking at the right time ahead of Saturday’s Gr 3 Cup Trial over 1800m at the big Rising Sun Meeting at Greyville.

Soma said about the classy four-year-old Fort Wood mare Athina, “She is doing very well. I thought she was an unlucky second in the Paddock Stakes. We had been aiming her at the President’s Champions Challenge but at the end of March she developed a hoof abscess which took longer to clear up than we had predicted.

“She was out of work for two-and-a-half weeks so we put her in the sprint on Champions day instead. It was maybe the wrong thing to do in restrospect but we couldn’t have predicted how cut up the ground was going to be and both her eyes were closed the next day, she must have been hit by clods. The run can be completely ignored.

“She has done a lot of work since. We were going to go for the Gold Challenge but she drew badly and the 1600m might be a touch sharp for her now. She’s looking for the ground and she is drawn well with a good jockey aboard (Richard Fourie). We will decide after the race whether she goes for the July or the Garden Province. We’re expecting a big run.”

Athina is the only female in the Cup Trial and has to carry 58kg off her 106 merit rating.

By David Thiselton

Picture: Athina (Nkosi Hlophe)