Jumping beckons for True Marvel

Trainer Matthew Smith is targeting a team of jumpers at this year's Warrnambool May Racing Carnival, headlined by stayer True Marvel.

The French-bred gelding, who was Stakes-placed when finishing second in the 2021 Listed Sandown Cup, will be aimed at the event after tackling a number of autumn assignments on the flat.

Smith confirmed the son of Masked Marvel will race at The Valley on Friday in the feature Listed Torney Night Cup (2500m), before a trip to South Australia for the Group 2 Adelaide Cup (3200m) on March 13.

"He's a tough horse, he stays well and the Adelaide Cup hopefully might be an ideal race, 3200 metres is perfect," he said.

"We thought we'd give it a crack, you never know it might throw up a wet track or something like that and give him a chance to get into a race like that.

"(The Torney) is just nice timing for him a month out and he'd been working well, he's in good shape.

"He'll end up heading to jumping after that and back to the flat after the jumps."

Smith had his first jumper at the carnival in 2021 with the Irish-bred Once Were Lost, who is now in the care of trainer Amy McDonald.

The New South Wales-based horseman has a long association with the jumps, having worked with champion trainer Aidan O'Brien when he was Ireland's leading jumps trainer as he transitioned to reigniting Ballydoyle to become the world's leading stable.

Smith says True Marvel will stay under his name for his jumping runs and that a few of his stablemates will also be targeted towards the jumping season.

"I've got a jumps licence, so I'll train him from NSW and we'll see if we can knock over a few jumps races," Smith said.

"I've just had the one runner down at Warrnambool before, but we've got a few others there that I think might also jump this year like Monreal.

"There's a couple others there we might take down as well, so hopefully we have a few runners during some of the jumps carnivals this season."

Along with True Marvel racing at The Valley on Friday night, Smith is also hoping to add another Victorian G1 to his resume with three year-old colt Buenos Noches taking on Australia's premier sprinters in Saturday's Black Caviar Lightning at Flemington.