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By Ray Hickson

Trainer Anthony Cummings knows a mile is beyond Kote’s powers but he’s confident with the right passage the talented three-year-old can prove himself over 1400m at Hawkesbury on Saturday.

Trainer Anthony Cummings (Pic: Bradley Photos)

The stakeswinning gelding was tried up to 1600m as a two-year-old but in 10 starts since then has only been out as far as 1300m.

Cummings said the intention is for Kote to be more conservatively ridden in the Group 3 $200,000 Blacktown Workers Club Group Hawkesbury Guineas (1400m) than he was in his last start fifth in the Arrowfield Sprint.

“We know mentally he doesn’t cope with a mile, he wants to go too hard,’’ Cummings said.

“But off speed, and he’ll be ridden off speed in this race, he’ll be fine.

“There’s decent speed drawn outside him so I’m hopeful they come over and the rest will take care of itself.

“I think it works out okay. He’s quite likely to get the right run. Just somewhere with cover, he just needs a bum to follow and from there he’ll be fine.”

It hasn’t been an easy job to work out what suits Kote, $7 with TAB on Thursday, best as back in the spring he charged through the grades with three wins in seven weeks all from the front going from a maiden to the Listed Brian Crowley.

Perhaps the horse got a bit cocky in his spell because he made life hard for Tyler Schiller in two runs in February that forced Cummings to re-evaluate.

“He took charge at his first two runs. The issue we had was he turned out to be too strong for Tyler and the horse got away with too much,’’ he said.

“We had to start again in terms of trying to build a race pattern.”

When Craig Williams took over on Kote in the Fireball at Randwick on March 4 he settled last and rattled home into second, and again under Nash Rawiller in the Darby Munro two weeks later he sat back and hit the line into the runner-up spot behind Opal Ridge.

Cummings said when it came to the Group 2 Arrowfield Sprint (1200m) it wasn’t ideal having to take up the running again and he thought the gelding performed well under the circumstances running fifth behind Aft Cabin.

“The other day he paid full penalty for a wide gate and we elected to go forward which is fair enough and he just went too quick in the middle stages,’’ he said.

“His run was still very good and Nash was impressed with him because even though he went too quick in the run he still had a kick at the top of the straight.”

Stablemate Cap Estel had a pause in her preparation in early February and Cummings said she’s not without a chance in the Clarendon Tavern Handicap (1500m).

The four-year-old returned from a two month break with an even fifth on a heavy track over 1100m at Hawkesbury and warmed up for the race with a 1200m trial on Tuesday.

“I’m pleased with her. She had a bit of time off and when she came back in she was working better than she was racing,’’ he said.

Kote runs second at Rosehill on March 18

“We sent her to the paddock for 10 days to help her regather.”

Cummings dismissed the 400m distance jump as an issue and suggests she could regain the form that saw her Group 3 placed last autumn.

“She goes into a race that is below what she is capable of and at a distance that is pretty comfortable,’’ he said.

“The barrier is kind to her and wet track or not she’s equally adept so she’s there to run a nice race.”

All the fields, form and replays for Saturday's Hawkesbury Cup meeting