Prochester to sign off busy season at Flemington
Richard Edmunds - Raceform • July 4th, 2025 12:00 PM • 3 min read
Saturday’s A$200,000 Mahogany Challenge Final at Flemington is set to be the final start of the season for tough and durable three-year-old Prochester.
The Proisir gelding had only one start as a two-year-old, finishing a close fifth at Hastings in July of last year. His three-year-old campaign has yielded 12 appearances since November, with a 2200m maiden win at Waverley in January backed up by a third in the Gr. 3 Manawatu Classic, a fifth in the Gr. 2 Waikato Guineas and a sixth in the Listed Gingernuts Salver.
Prochester has continued to perform admirably since relocating across the Tasman into trainer Andrew Forsman’s Flemington stable. He ran fifth over 2000m there on May 17, followed by a close second at 50-to-one odds on June 7. His most recent appearance produced a ninth, 4.1 lengths from the winner, on June 21.
“I thought that he was good again that day,” Forsman told RaceForm. “He’s shown that he’s a much better horse when he can get out and rolling in clear air and get his momentum up. When he’s in amongst horses, he can just lack that turn of foot.
“He was in traffic last start and tried to follow the favourite through (eventual runner-up Shockletz), but then that horse sprinted and just left him flat-footed.
“If he can get out and rolling a bit sooner, and has a bit more time to wind up, he’s a different horse. We saw that in his big effort for second in his previous start.”
Saturday’s Mahogany Challenge Final will be run over 2500m and is the last of a series of staying three-year-old events in Melbourne through the winter months. Forsman expects it to be the last race of Prochester’s campaign.
“He’s been great leading into the race this weekend,” Forsman said. “I’m mindful that he’s been up for quite a while now, so he may not be far away from having had enough for this preparation. He’s not showing any sign of that around the stable though and is still pleasing us with everything that he’s doing.
“This is the final race of the series, and I imagine it’ll be his last run of the campaign. He’s done a super job right the way through.”
