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By Ray Hickson

Popular mare Dark Glitter could be racing to stave off stud duties at Rosehill on Saturday with trainer Mike Van Gestel weighing up when the right time to breed from her will be.

It’ll be a tough call when a decision is made as the 82-year-old trainer, who also owns the mare with his wife Louisa, derives so much pleasure from seeing Dark Glitter race.

That was never more evident when the five-year-old swept home to break a 17 month run out of the winner’s stall two weeks ago, not too long after the trainer found himself in hospital with a bout of sepsis.

“It’s still not 100 per cent, I’m still suffering the side effects of it. I'm taking it easy but still training the horses,’’ Van Gestel said.

“We enjoy racing her. Everything went our way last time, she deserved it and I was quite pleased.”

The five-year-old will be shooting for back-to-back wins in the Racing And Sports Handicap (1300m), something she hasn’t achieved in her 46 starts to date.

Trainer Mike Van Gestel (Pic: Bradley Photos).

That win went a long way to Van Gestel shelving talk of retiring the mare but she’s not out of the woods just yet.

“We weren’t quite sure whether we were going to retire and breed from her, that was a possibility before last start and now we’re not sure again,’’ he said.

“We’ll see how she goes and that will tell us whether to pull her out of racing or give her another 12 months.

“If we’re going to look for a commercial stallion you’ve got to book your mare in.”

Van Gestel hasn’t shied away from a challenge with Dark Glitter having tried her in stakes company in 17 of her 46 starts and she’s recorded four placings including close seconds to Firestorm and Manaal at Group 2 level.

Prior to her last two starts she’d contested 12 consecutive Group races and if she does race on it’ll more than likely see her return to stakes grade.

“She’s been racing against some of the best mares in the land and nearly got there a few times,’’ he said.

“This could well be the last benchmark race if she does well then we’ve got to go to black type races again.

“I didn’t think she was going to get there last time when she was giving them six or seven lengths.

“We got a little bit of luck compared with no luck at all.

“She gets interrupted all the time but she gets back because she doesn’t have great early speed. Once she got going and saw daylight and was able to stretch out she came out very fast.”

Anna Roper retains the ride on Dark Glitter, $6.00 with TAB on Friday, and the combination of her win plus Roper’s claim reducing to 1.5kg after her 50th city win sees her rise 2.5kg.

The Hawkesbury trainer said he just hopes Roper is able to chart the right course again.

“She’s quite easy to train and easy to ride but she’s always going to be looking for luck,’’ he said.

“She doesn’t mind wet or dry, we’ll just hope for the best.”

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