Fieldelo aiming to upstage She's An Artist in Creswick Stakes at Flemington
Last-start runner-up Fieldelo finished 3¾ lengths behind She's An Artist, the short-priced favourite to win the Creswick Stakes, but Lake is happy to be an underdog in the bid to flip the result.
'A few people seem to think the race has already been run and won,' Lake said.
'Hopefully, without that added pressure we can cause a bit of an upset.'
She's An Artist, trained by Ciaron Maher, is the $1.55 favourite from Fieldelo ($4.60) and Soft Love ($7).
Lake said the rise in distance from 1100m to 1200m and rain-affected soft track would help Fieldelo.
'We get a small swing in the weights (1kg better than last start) and I could expect to sit closer to it in the run,' Lake said.
'I think both fillies are open to improvement off the other day … both rising stars to some extent.
'We're getting to our right trip, third-up, we're going to be hopefully peaking on Saturday.
'Like I said to the owners, if there's a chink in the other filly's armour on the day hopefully we're the ones to get over her late.'
Lake has obvious black-type ambitions for Fieldelo on Saturday and beyond.
'It's pretty clear she's a stakes filly in the making, it's just a matter of how you get there,' Lake said.
Fieldelo has travelled nicely at the start and finish of her three starts to date, including a brilliant seven-length Bendigo romp, but hit flat spots mid-race on each occasion.
'I thought she was lost a little bit (last start at Flemington) when they joined the course proper, she hit a little flat spot but she was strong late,' Lake said.
'Gave me confidence to go again this Saturday, up in trip, thinking she'll be better suited at 1200m.'
Lake said Fieldelo would not be drawn into a drag race with She's An Artist on Saturday.
'We still want to do the right thing by our horse,' Lake said.
'It's not the be all end all Saturday, as much as we'd like to win we don't want to go out and ride our filly any differently and do anything that could be detrimental to her chances.
'Tactics wise, I'm not sure, we'll have a good look at the race … the good thing about our filly is she's very tactically versatile, she's able to take a sit or she's able to lead, she's able to be back in the field.
'We're really looking forward to getting there.'
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