Adam Trunder and Mystic Journey at Flemington (Image: James Tzaferis)
Adam Trinder will abandon Cox Plate plans with Mystic Journey if the star mare fails to run out a strong 2000 metres in the Group 1 Turnbull Stakes at Flemington on Saturday.
The G1 Myer Classic (1600m) and the $7.5 million Golden Eagle remain back-up options for The All-Star Mile winner, who will have her middle-distance credentials tested for the first time in Saturday's $500,000 feature.
But it's a decision Trinder remains confident he won't have to make, declaring on Friday morning that his star mare is giving him every indication she can extend her dominance to 2000m.
"If she doesn't run a strong 2000m tomorrow then she won't be at the Cox Plate in three weeks' time," Trinder said.
"There are plenty of other options, she's around at the right time for the Myer (Empire Rose Stakes) over 1600m for fillies and mares or she still holds an entry for The Golden Eagle in Sydney.
"But I feel that she'll run 10 furlongs, every race-day assignment she's been galloping through the line and beyond it and that was evident even at her last start in defeat.
"She's a filly that will give herself every opportunity because she'll drop her head, relax and breathe.
"She's bred to get a journey, the only question is whether she's too brilliant to get a journey but I've got full confidence in her."
WATCH: Mystic Journey's Makybe Diva run
Trinder said Mystic Journey had trained on following her surprise defeat in the Makybe Diva Stakes (1600m) last start, in which she ran quicker time than both her All-Star Mile win and her Australian Guineas victory at the track and distance.
While he won't overburden regular rider Anthony Darmanin with instructions, the Tasmanian horseman indicated that he would like to see the four-year-old ridden conservatively early and allowed to use her turn of speed at the end of the race.
"She hasn't missed a beat, she's trained right on from the Makybe Diva," he said.
"I felt in her last start that she may have potentially been a pair too close in the run, I don't feel that it would've changed the result and she wouldn't have beaten Gatting, but I feel that she switches off and flows better when she switches off early.
"We'll just ride her, we won't worry about the speed map of the race.
"She can go back, relax and hopefully blend in from the 700m in the three-wide line and track into the race."