The 2010 Jumps Racing season commences tomorrow at Oakbank and one of last season’s most promising hurdlers will be making his debut over the higher fences.

Yamanaura, winner of $100,000 Barr Smith Hurdle (4050m) at Moonee Valley last July and two other metropolitan hurdle races last season, will contest the $30,000 The Oakbank Prelude Steeplechase (3250m) on Saturday.

“It’s probably going to be his forte running in steeplechases,” leading jumps jockey and foreman for the John Wheeler stable Brett Scott said before adding “We thought that last year but we decided to keep him to the hurdles for all those major races.”

“We did think about the Hiskens but we probably thought he was a year away.

“He’ll run this weekend and that’ll decide whether we run him in the Von Doussa and Great Eastern,” Scott said before suggesting Yamanaura would be an unlikely starter over the Warrnambool three-day carnival in May and instead would be freshened for a tilt at several feature steeplechase races later in the year.

Scott will ride Yamanaura and will also partner stablemate Governor Bois in the $30,000 Oakbank Prelude Hurdle (2900m) earlier in the afternoon.

“He’s going to be a nice short-course steeplechaser, he doesn’t have a lot of stamina.”

“I would think he’d be a nice ride in a 2900m hurdle,” Scott said.

Picture: Fiona Tomlin