©Racing Victoria/Slickpix

By Brad Bishop

La Amistad, the younger half-sister of three-time Melbourne Cup winner Makybe Diva, will run in Saturday’s $200,000 Listed Andrew Ramsden Stakes at Flemington.

It will be the five-year-old’s first try at the distance her sister had three goes for three famous victories and will come in the Victoria Racing Club’s ‘other’ 3200-metre event.

The daughter of Redoute’s Choice is backing up after disappointing when sixth in last Saturday’s Port Adelaide Cup (2500m) at Morphettville, but co-trainer Wayne Hawkes said she had come through that race in fine order.

“She’s travelled back from Adelaide well, but we were disappointed with her,” Hawkes told Racing.com's Racing Ahead on RSN. “I’m not going to make any excuses, she was disappointing the other day.

“She’s not at the crossroads, but I reckon this Saturday will really sort us out with her.

“She was third-up the other day at a mile-and-a-half, she’s got one more run under her belt since then, so this will really sort her out and give us a look at her in a two-mile race.

“There’s no excuse for her on Saturday. We don’t often back horses up Saturday to Saturday and, to be blunt with you, when we do they normally run extremely well.”

La Amistad, who is by Redoute’s Choice out of Makybe Diva’s mother Tugela, ran eighth in the Group 2 Sunline Stakes (1600m) and seventh in a 2000m handicap at Caulfield before the Port Adelaide Cup effort.

She has won five of her 20 starts with an additional five minor placings.

This article first appeared on the Racing Victoria website and is reproduced here with their kind permission. For more on Off the Track visit http://rv.racing.com/the-horse/off-the-track