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By Ray Hickson

A Country Championships campaign in the new year could beckon for promising mare Red Rags To Bulls but trainer Jeremy Gask will use the rest of this preparation to examine her stamina.

Trainer Jeremy Gask (Pic: Bradley Photos).

The four-year-old steps up to the Randwick mile in Saturday’s TAB Highway (1600m) on the back of a win at Rosehill two weeks ago that impressed Gask, particularly in how she overcame a relatively slowly run race.

With three wins from 11 starts so far, Gask said the Country Championships is well worth considering.

“That said I wouldn’t let it dominate my thinking,’’ he said.

“I wouldn’t want to jeopardise her future with aiming at one event but with the way the timing will be it looks like a logical point. It would fit in quite well with what we aim to do.

“I want to explore her distance this preparation and we’ll probably keep stepping her up.

“I trained her grandmother and she won over a mile and three quarters at Flemington so there is stamina in her pedigree.”

Red Rags To Bulls, $8 with TAB on Wednesday, had something of a false start to her campaign as she was pulled out of her first-up assignment back in March then found 1100m too short when she returned to the races in May.

But since she scored at Muswellbrook when out to 1450m the only way has been up.

She put the writing on the wall with an eye-catching fourth in a Highway at Rosehill a month ago before her impressive win there on June 28 where she clocked easily the race's fastest last 600m of 33.70 (Punter’s Intelligence) by some three lengths.

Ben Osmond was only able to claim 0.5kg on that occasion but he'll take his full 2kg this time and Gask said that's a plus in what won't be an easy race.

“I don’t think they went hard so the run was very good, her sectionals were excellent,’’ Gask said.

“Midrace I was resigned to the fact we were in trouble but she overcame that.

“I do like her a lot. She just keeps on stepping up. Take those two runs out where she had excuses and her form is pretty good.

“The weights are a little bit tricky this week, the way I train I let them progress in their own time and don’t force the issue so quite often they keep improving.

“I think she’ll want every bit of the mile and possibly further.”

There’s a Class 3 Highway over 1800m in a couple of weeks for Red Rags To Bulls if she’s hitting the line strongly but doesn’t win.

Gask is happy to give Who Ever Thought his chance from an outside barrier in the Asahi Super Dry Handicap (1600m) which he says is more a positive than a negative.

The gelding chases a hat-trick following wins at Scone and Canterbury and the trainer said he’ll have his chance to measure up.

“I’d prefer him to be drawn there than inside at the mile start. He’s a natural go forward horse and he only knows one thing so it’ll help being out there,’’ he said.

Red Rags To Bulls wins at Rosehill on June 28

“We won’t have to hunt early, we have a nice back straight to come across in our own time.

“He’s probably going to have to take these horses on now, he’s earned a crack.

“He’s in that in between rating for a country horse and we might have to look at travelling and some country cups might be on the agenda for him.”

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