Levendi's spring campaign must start this week but a race at Mornington on Wednesday is only one option for the Peter Gelagotis stable.
Levendi impressed with his maiden win at Ballarat at his only outing in June but the win convinced CrownBet to have the son of Pierro as a $26 chance to win the Caulfield Guineas in October.
The Caulfield Guineas is the goal for Levendi but stable manager Manny Gelagotis said earning prizemoney was the reason for the colt starting his preparation at a lower level in the Fastrac Food Services Handicap (1200m).
Rain is forecast for Victoria on Tuesday and Gelagotis has a couple of back-up races at Morphettville or Kyneton on Saturday if Mornington comes up too wet for Levendi.
"We just want to maximise the opportunities to earn prizemoney and get the horse to where we want to get to," Gelagotis said.
"There is never a soft option but we thought in our programming that he has to race this week and we've nominated him everywhere."
Levendi only has $12,650 in the bank after his sole outing, which makes the prizemoney chase important for the stable but Gelagotis is happy connections took a conservative approach with the promising galloper.
"We took a long-term view that in the interests of the horse, that he should go to the paddock after his Ballarat win," Gelagotis said. "That formline kept going and won races, which is great.
"We sacrificed prizemoney when we tipped him out and gave him time to mature rather than some other trainers that tried to freshen their horses up, which was not what we were ever going to do.
"A gutbuster down the straight first-up (in the Danehill Stakes at Flemington), we just didn't think that was in the horse's best interests.
"He'll peak when he gets to 1400m and beyond."
Levendi has firmed from $3.50 to $2.90 in CrownBet's market on the Mornington race in which Ben Melham will be aboard.
