Courtesy The West Australian website:

England has joined the growing list of leading racing countries keen to lure WA's champion galloper Northerly out of Australia.

Trainer Fred Kersley, who has put on hold many requests to race Northerly in Dubai's $13 million World Cup, the world's richest race, now has to entertain English hopes.

Like other northern hemisphere fans, Northerly has made the English heads spin, specially with his demolition of top European star Grandera in last season's Group 1 Cox Plate in Melbourne.

Nick Cheyne, Ascot director of racing, yesterday arrived in Melbourne and took Kersley and wife Judy, Northerly's half owner, to lunch.

But Kersley was typically non-committal about the English idea to run Northerly in the $2 million King George and Queen Elizabeth Stakes over his 2002 Caulfield Cup-winning distance of 2400m.

The Guy Walter-trained Defier, runner-up to Northerly when the WA star won his second successive Cox Plate, is also high on the list of England.

"There's a lot of water to pass under the bridge before then," Judy Kersley said. "Fred has just added it to the list. He wants to concentrate on the Australian Cup and BMW."

Before Kersley thinks about Europe, Dubai or Singapore, he has Northerly aimed at the $1.25 Australian Cup at Flemington on March 10 and the $2 million BMW Classic in Sydney on April 12.

Northerly has his second run in his latest campaign in the $200,000 weight-for-age St George Stakes (1800m) at Caulfield on Saturday when he renews rivalry with the Tony McEvoy-trained Fields Of Omagh.

Kersley has been pleased with Northerly's progress since his first-up Melbourne fourth to Yell in the Orr Stakes on February 8 when Fields Of Omagh ran a close second.

The 1400m was far too short for Northerly and he is favourite to return to the winners' list at the 1800m of the St George Stakes.

He is an odds-on favourite in early St George fixed odds markets and dominates betting with Fields Of Omagh.

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