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By Ray Hickson

Trainer Bryce Heys has no grand plans to target stakes races just yet with promising mare Po Kare Kare but he’s quietly confident with the right amount of patience she’ll reach that level.

Trainer Bryce Heys (Pic: Steve Hart)

The four-year-old is protecting an unbeaten second-up record when she tackles the TAB Handicap (1100m) at Randwick on Saturday and while Heys said it might not be the ideal set up for her it’s all part of her educational program.

“We’re definitely not getting ahead of ourselves, we are at 78 range and that’s where she sits at the minute,’’ he said.

“I think at 1100m second-up, albeit she is unbeaten second-up, she might be a bit vulnerable but that’s by design so we can race with some consistency over the next little while.

“We haven’t done a lot with her between first-up and going into Saturday and we’ll use this run to get her up to 1200m.”

Po Kare Kare, $2.90 on opening with TAB on Wednesday, may have only had seven starts but she’s already gained a reputation for having a devastating turn of foot and that was on display in her first-up win on New Year’s Eve.

She posted the fastest last 600m of the meeting (32.98, Punter’s Intelligence) and the last 200m (11.09) in winning an 1100m Benchmark 78 for fillies and mares.

The extra merit in the win came in the fact that jockey Nash Rawiller had to do plenty of waiting for a gap to open in the straight and she was still able to reel off those slick splits.

She’ll take on the boys on Saturday, with Alysha Collett to ride, and Heys said as impressive as that first-up win was she wasn’t fully wound up for the first-up run.

“She was prepped to run well but naturally that run would always bring her on, and it has,’’ he said.

“When she’s had favours she’s been impressive. She was always going to improve with time from a physical standpoint.

“When you look after them they improve like she maybe has but she does need racing.

“She still needs probably a couple more starts and that will help her if she is going to jump in grade.”

Heys is using the Grainshaker Vodka Handicap (1100m) as something of a testing ground for impressive second-up winner Another Cognac.

The three-year-old colt scored over 1000m at Warwick Farm on January 4.

He’ll face a promising field including boom filly Passeggiata and has said to the gelding’s owners the race is an opportunity to see where he might stand and hopes it’s a better guide than last time he tested the waters.

That was back in September where what looked to be a fast run Listed Heritage Stakes (1100m) on paper was ripped apart with seven scratchings to more than halve the field.

Po Kare Kare wins at Randwick on December 31

“We ran in the Heritage because it was going to be a full field with heaps of speed and we were trying to get him off the bridle,’’ Heys said.

“Then at 7.28 on race morning there were a heap of scratchings so it was always going to be a disaster.

“I thought if he could run well at Warwick Farm or win this was the natural progression.

“He’s given me no reason not to have a go. He’s got to improve but he’s continued to display that he has.

“He’s a horse with some ability, by the right stallion, and they are going to race him and have some fun. It’s not the end of the world if he’s not up to them but I’m confident he will run well.”

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