REIGNING Brierly-Grand Annual Steeplechase winner Gold Medals showed he's on track for this year's feature jumps races with a pleasing first-up flat run at Bendigo on Saturday.
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Gold Medals ran 11th behind Mosh Music and Dark Pearl in a restricted race over 2400 metres for Warrnambool trainer Symon Wilde.
Wilde told The Standard Gold Medals would be aimed at the Brierly but a start in the Grand Annual was still up in the air.
"I thought it was a top flat run," he said.
"We've had a trouble-free campaign with Gold Medals to this stage of his preparation.
"We gave him a couple of steeplechase trials as a lead into the Bendigo run.
"We'll set Gold Medals for the Terang Cup on April 14 and a steeple trial.
"We've been down that path before winning the Terang Cup in 2017 and running fifth last year and then we tackled the Brierly.
"We'll run in the Brierly first and see how he goes before making a decision about a start in this year's Grand Annual.
"He's been a versatile horse for his connections winning at his debut run over 1000 metres and going on to win the Grand Annual over 5500 metres."
Dodging Bullets, a stablemate of Gold Medals, ran 15th in the $150,000 Golden Mile on Saturday, while Labuan Star finished in fifth spot at his first start for Warrnambool trainer Daniel Bowman in a restricted race.
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