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By Ray Hickson

On the back of an impressive first-up win, a distance experiment is in the back of trainer Matthew Smith’s mind with consistent mare Sprout Wings this preparation.

The five-year-old has established herself as a solid middle distance performer in the past 12 months but is yet to be tried beyond 2100m in her 20 starts.

As she heads to Canterbury for her second-up run in the TAB Handicap (1900m) on Wednesday, Smith said he’d like to work her towards an attempt at a mile and a half in the coming months.

“I want to see if she will run 2400m, we’ve never tried her,’’ Smith said.

“She’ll go 1900m, then 2000m and maybe give her a shot at a 2400m.

“We haven’t locked anything in, she likes wet tracks so we’ll keep her around her for the time being and see what we can win with her.”

Sprout Wings, $6 with TAB on Tuesday, started $17 when she scored first-up at Warwick Farm over a mile just over a month ago.

It was confirmation for Smith that she’d come back in good order given she’d never managed to win fresh in three previous attempts.

“She was really working well going into that race, she’s flying,’’ he said.

“I might have been a tad surprised she won but the way she was working she was going to run well.

“Her work has been spot on since, she’ll run very well again.”

Sprout Wings wins at Warwick Farm on March 29

From barrier one, Smith said he expects Kathy O’Hara will make a bit of use of the favourable gate and position closer to the speed up in distance than she did at Warwick Farm where she came with a sweeping run from the second half.

“She’ll roll forward from the gate, make sure you’re genuine to the first turn and be in the first four I would imagine,’’ he said.

“There’s not much between them, it’s a fairly even bunch of horses. She runs the 1900m, she’s in good form and she’ll be right in it.”

Smith produces a staying bred three-year-old called Prefer The Wink in the Paulele @ Darley Handicap (1250m) and is curious to see what the gelding can do on debut.

He’s by Preferment out of a mare Smith trained called Veux Winkle, who had to be retired after just five starts.

Prefer The Wink ran a close second behind established stayer Warning in a 1200m trial at Warwick Farm on April 21.

“He’s a really nice horse but he’s a distance horse,’’ he said.

“I thought if the track came up heavy a 1250m might be a tougher run race. It’s probably too short for him but he will make a nice horse in the future.

“I trained the mother, she was a nice mare but she had an injury and never got to her full potential. It’s nice she’s produced a horse that looks like he can gallop.”

All the fields, form and replays for Wednesday’s Canterbury meeting