THIS year Veronica Fisher had a decision to make with her mare Star Play.
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The Oberon trainer has had her share of memorable times with the Shadow Play seven-year-old but with a couple of injury concerns Fisher was weighing up whether to bring an end to Star Play's racing career and start a new one in breeding.
But the mare has continued to put in promising performances this year- including a pair of runner-up results at Bathurst in her past two starts - and as long as Star Play continues to stay sound then Fisher will keep sending her around.
Star Play makes another start at Bathurst Paceway in this Wednesday night's Bedwells Feed Barn Pace (1,730 metres), getting a nice draw in gate two.
Fisher sees a bit of potential in Star Play as a broodmare and won't want to do anything risky to put that in jeopardy.
"She's starting to come back to form. She had a few issues early on which required her to spell to let her get over it," she said.
"She had corns so in the end we ripped her shoes off, let them grow out, and then we brought her back in. She was heading straight for the breeding barn but if she keeps performing she might get another year of racing yet.
"If she can win another one or two I think she's hit her mark, then I'll be best to put her in foal. It'll be more profitable breeding her than continuing to send her around. She's a nice mare, I don't want to break her down."
There's been some nice results out of Star Play's dam Satellite Star.
Star Play, the second foal out of Satellite Star, has enjoyed 10 wins and 26 placings from her 115 career starts to date while older half-brother Imthevillagestar has made more than $100,000 in prizemoney for trainer Russell Reynolds and makes his 100th career start at Wednesday night's meeting.
Her youngest foal to recently race, The Grogfather, has also made a very commendable start to his career with two wins from nine starts.
McKayler Barnes will have her first drive with Star Play in Wednesday's race.
"There's a couple there that would like to lead. She is a frontrunner and we'd like that position," Fisher said.
"If she doesn't get that then we'll have to sit her up and see what she's got at the end. I was slightly disappointed with last week. I thought she should have finished that off, but the bar on her shoe was broken so that could have affected her.
"She's a handy mare who puts in 100 per cent so we'll see what she comes up with."
Star Play remains the only horse in work for hobby trainer Fisher, although she has an unnamed juvenile being broken in at Mat Rue's stable.
"I send the horses where there's action and where they can work with other horses, because I work on my own. I think a young horse needs to be around other horses every day, and Mat's got a nice opinion of him," she said.
"Once they're racehorses they're fine to come back to me, and I can work them and bring them in and out."
Racing at Bathurst gets underway from 5.42pm.