Parker wants a clear passage to get a measure on Hope In Your Heart

Kembla Grange trainer Kerry Parker doesn’t look back with Hope In Your Heart, but he is also not looking too far in the future with the talented mare as she heads to Rosehill on Saturday.

Hope In Your Heart was one of the many victims of the track bias at Rosehill a fortnight ago when she never saw clear air on her return.

“We didn’t learn much from that,” Parker said of the eighth where she featured heavily in the stewards along with Frumos, which is again a rival on Saturday.

“She is going well but for these four-year-old mares it is a hard transition into open class benchmark racing, and we just want her to show us where she can get too.

“There are plenty of options for her later in the spring, but at the moment she can run in benchmark 78s, so we will look to get some prizemoney and take it as it comes.”

Hope In Your Heart is already a group 3 runner-up from the Kembla Grange Classic in the autumn. Parker thinks she could extend out to the mile again and isn’t ruling out further, despite her failure in the Australian Oaks.

“By the time she got there she had been running on wet tracks all preparation and it caught up with her. She is only a lightly framed filly and I thought she did a great job,” he said.

“She is definitely a mare that is going to win city races, but we also have the option of dropping back to Midways with her given her rating.

“I feel she is going really well and, hopefully, she gets the chance to show that on the weekend, unlike last time.”