By: Alex Steedman

 Steven O'Brien-trained metropolitan-winner Inadesert will use Friday's $30,000 Tony Campbell Cup (1280m) at Thoroughbred Park as a launching pad toward races in Sydney after a lengthy lay-off due to a tendon injury.

The seven-year-old will resume in the Tony Campbell Cup on Friday following a solid campaign where he claimed a maiden weekend city victory at Randwick in August of last year.

Inadesert had just one more start following the win before he succumbed to a tendon injury which has since sidelined the Steven O'Brien-trained galloper.

“He's had a fair bit of time off after a tendon injury,” O'Brien said. “We've given it a lot of time, treated it right and brought him along slowly.”

“It happened after his last start a year ago. He had a win at Randwick and we took him back up there a fortnight later where he ran fifth.

“We got him back home and there was a bit of heat in the tendon. We had it scanned and it showed he had done some damage to the tendon.”

O'Brien views Friday's Tony Campbell Cup as an ideal race to test the seven-year-old after his injury enforced spell.

“We saw the Tony Campbell Cup in Canberra on the synthetic and thought it was a great race to start him off in,” O'Brien said.

“In a race like this there are some pretty handy horses with good form. Inadesert will run his own race, there will be plenty of speed there, he will just sit back and be doing his best work late.

“If he gets up there and is competitive and close I will be really happy with that. The main thing is he pulls up well and we can make up a bit of a plan to go on with it.”

These plans are likely to revolve around middle distance races in Sydney over the coming months.

Inadesert's versatility is highlighted by his five career wins which have come over distances between 1280m – 2100m.

The seven-year-old has won twice and been placed once from six starts first up. The placing came in the 2008 Listed National Sprint (1400m) at Canberra when second behind My Lady's Chamber.

“He can stay a bit but he can sprint as well. I don't think he will be too far away,” O'Brien said. “Hopefully he will pull up alright on Friday and we can start looking for races a bit further with him.”

In other news from the stable, the usually consistent sprinter Chess has returned to work after a lengthy spell.

Chess has won six races at Canberra and O'Brien is hoping the seven-year-old can rekindle this form after an uncharacteristic poor campaign late last year.

“Chess has a few problems,” O'Brien said. “We gave him a short preparation because he wasn't coming up as good as we wanted him to so we put him out.

“He's back in work again now. He'll come up fairly steadily and won't be rushing him. He's getting older and has had a few problems but hopefully we'll see him back racing well in the next couple of months.”