David Hayes has several reasons why he is setting champion sprinter Redkirk Warrior for the $5 million All-Star Mile.

Redkirk Warrior will not attempt to win a third straight Newmarket Handicap or consecutive Black Caviar Lightning Stakes.

“He came to me as a miler and a 2000m horse but he went so fast in his work I turned him into a sprinter and he turned into a winning machine,” Hayes said.

“Now he’s weighted out of a Newmarket and other sprints so I’m going to train him as a miler and set him for the All-Star.

“I could set him for the Lightning Stakes again but that wouldn’t fit in with an All-Star Mile program.”

Redkirk Warrior will resume from a spell in the Group 2 Australia Stakes at The Valley on Friday night and Hayes said he will not be at his peak.

“He’s still capable of winning it but he will need the run. He’ll settle off the speed and run home strongly, as he did in Friday’s jumpout at Flemington, which really pleased me.”

Hayes said Regan Bayliss, who rode Redkirk Warrior on Friday, told him the horse felt in great order.

Redkirk Warrior last raced when 10th in the VRC Sprint Classic but Hayes said he didn’t settle back into his work after a failed English campaign.

Hayes said after Friday night, Redkirk Warrior would run in the two 1400m Group 1 races at Caulfield — the Orr Stakes on February 9 and the Futurity Stakes on February 23 — before the All-Star Mile in March. Hayes said he would set his other top sprinter, Vega Magic, for a first-up run in the Newmarket Handicap.

“I’ll try and do what I did with Redkirk Warrior in 2017.”

Redkirk Warrior is one of 22 horses the Hayes and Daberning training team has entered for the All-Star Mile.

PREUSKER BANKING ON DISTRICT GETTING BEHIND MAGIC
The timing of the All-Star Mile couldn’t have been better for Horsham trainer Paul Preusker and his revitalised veteran Magic Consol.

“I was looking at running him at that time and then this new race popped up,” Preusker said.

He hopes Horsham and the Wimmera district get behind Magic Consol and vote to secure him a spot.

“I’m hoping that will happen — we’re going to need all the help we can get,” he said.

Magic Consol, who is $51 for the All-Star Mile, went from being a solid open handicapper to a Group 2 weight-for-age winner in the space of three runs last year. He beat Mihany by seven lengths at the Valley on June 16 before winning the VRC Winter Championship (1600m) at Flemington over another All-Star Mile entrant, Moss ‘n’ Dale.

He then beat subsequent Group 1 winner and All-Star Mile entrant Homesman in the Dato Tan Chin Nam.

Preusker bypassed the spring, but said Magic Consol only had a few weeks off.

He said the secret to Magic Consol’s late-career rejuvenation was changing his training methods to keep him fresh.

“He’s back in serious work — he didn’t have much time off,” Preusker said.

“I’ve kept him ticking along … he’s done lots of road work to keep him fit but he’s now had a couple of bounce outs.”

He said Magic Consol would have one run before the All-Star Mile, in either the Orr Stakes or the Futurity Stakes.

“That 1400m race would be a bit of a blowout and then he’d be ready for the All-Star Mile,” he said. “He’s fit and healthy and he looks the best he has in his whole career.”