Saracino bound for Caulfield Guineas

New Zealand colt Saracino will bypass a Group One race at home in favour of a tilt at Australian success.

The winner of the Group Two Foxbridge Plate against older horses last Saturday week, Saracino will be flown to Melbourne next week to continue his build-up to the Caulfield Guineas.

He will make his Australian debut in the Group Two Danehill Stakes at Flemington on September 10.

Bruce Perry, racing manager for Saracino's owner Lib Petagna, said they decided to miss Saturday's Makfi Challenge at Hastings, one of several options they considered at the meeting.

"His program is still to be decided but he's a high-class colt and we wanted to get him straight to Australia," Perry told NZ Racing Desk.

"He'll probably go from the Danehill on to the Guineas Prelude and then if he looks like he'll run out a strong mile (1600m) on to the Guineas itself.

"If he shows he'll be better kept to sprinting, then there's the option of the Coolmore Stakes. My gut feeling is he'll run a strong mile."

The Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman-trained Saracino became the first three-year-old winner of the weight-for-age Foxbridge Plate at Te Rapa in 32 years.

His stablemate Eleonora will run at Hastings in a special conditions maiden and if she performs well she will join Saracino on the plane.

Perry said her goal was the VRC Oaks.