Spirit And Fire not assured of start

The Hawkes training partnership has been forced into a waiting game with expensive colt Spirit And Fire who has been made an emergency for his planned debut at Doomben.

A $700,000 yearling by More Than Ready out of former star two-year-old Amelia's Dream, Spirit And Fire is the second emergency for Saturday's Two-Year-Old Handicap (1050m).

Spirit And Fire is raced by American breeding giant Spendthrift Farm which has a base at Romsey in Victoria.

A half brother to the handy Better Land, Spirit and Fire won a Rosehill trial impressively on July 19.

Co-trainer Michael Hawkes said they had not accepted at Caulfield on Saturday with Spirit and Fire with Brisbane the preference.

"We wanted to get him a win as a two-year-old," Hawkes said.

"So we will have to know whether he gets a run in Brisbane by 5pm on Thursday when he will have to get on a float.

"But if he doesn't get a start he will run in Sydney next week as a three-year-old."