Shane Nichols' talented filly Esha will drop back to her own age and sex at Moonee Valley on Friday and a win could see the Mornington trainer raise the bar again with the lightly raced three-year-old.
Esha won her first two starts either side of a spell, prompting Nichols and new training partner Hayden Black to take on all-comers in the Group 1 Moir Stakes last start.
But the daughter of Extreme Choice faded, finishing eighth behind Baraqiel, with a revised plan put in place and that led to connections targeting the Group 3 Scarborough Stakes.
"She got galloped on, had a little wound on her hind pastern but it cleaned up pretty quickly and she was back to normal," Nichols told Racing.com in explaining Esha's below par effort.
"Damian Lane came out and galloped her last week, she worked well. Then her normal rider Yasmin just gave her a gallop Tuesday morning. I think she probably presents up in pretty good shape."
Nichols will weigh up either keeping her to fillies races or heading to the Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes at Flemington after assessing Esha's Scarborough run.
