“He had a long spell because of a tibial stress fracture in a hind leg,” Property’s trainer Robert Smerdon said.

“They heal well and they do well but he needed time and that meant he came on the scene later.”

The setback kept Property out of the early three-year-old sprints such as the Vain and McNeil Stakes over 1100m and Smerdon said the 1200m of Wednesday’s Blue Sapphire Stakes wasn’t a suitable first-up trip for the gelding.

“They don’t really cater for sprinting three-year-olds right now. Early in the spring they do but all of a sudden they have got to run a mile,” Smerdon said.

“In an ideal world he would have gone into the Blue Sapphire but he wasn’t ready, or I didn’t think he was anyway, so he has got to kick up against the older horses.

“The 1000m is why he’s running in that race on Saturday.”

Property won a trial at Cranbourne on October 9, which followed jumpouts on three consecutive Tuesdays in September, to have the promising galloper ready for the first of two starts in his spring campaign.

“His trials and jumpouts have been terrific, really good. (Jockey) Craig (Williams) has been really happy with him,” Smerdon said.

“If he runs well enough, he’ll go to the Coolmore but if he doesn’t, he’ll go to a 1000m race down the straight during the carnival.”

Property has firmed from $4.60 to $4.20 in Sportsbet’s early market on the Caufield Sprint in which the Henry Dywer-trained Snitty Kitty is a $4 favourite after opening at $4.50. -racenet.com.au