Former Victorian Derby favourite Rekindled Interest will make his comeback to the racetrack in the Aurie’s Star Handicap at Flemington in a fortnight’s time.

Rekindled Interest has not been seen at the races since he finished fifth in last year’s Victorian Derby behind Lion Tamer.

Trainer Jim Conlan then opted to give the horse arthroscopic surgery on an injured knee, which forced him to miss the Autumn and Winter carnivals.

“I considered taking him to Queensland but it would have only allowed us a short break before we were back on top of the spring again,” Conlan said.

“We gave him a preparation and got him up to doing a little bit of fast work and then tipped him back out before he came back this time and everything is fine. The horse is terrific. Bright, well and sound.”

“We will be entering him in all the spring majors but we’ll wait and see that we target because he’ll get into the handicaps quite well so there are races like the Toorak which would be good for him.

“He’ll obviously get into a Caulfield Cup well at weights, if we go out to a trip.”

Conlan said that he was unsure what Rekindled Interest’s best distance was.

“He ran a strong 2000 meters in the AAMI Vase beating the subsequent Derby winner. We pushed him out to the 2500 meters in the Derby but we didn’t get an answer either way because of the appalling conditions.”

There has been a question mark over the quality of three year olds seen at last year’s Melbourne spring carnival, and Conlan agrees that it may have been a weak year.

“Anacheeva won the Guineas but hasn’t won since, the Derby winner also hasn’t been sighted along with Rekindled Interest so it would be fair to say that the jury is still out,” Conlan said.

“Time will tell but I’m very happy with how he is a couple of weeks out from going to the races. He’s carrying a bit of condition at the moment but he’s matured into quite a nice horse, and athletic, well balanced horse.”

Rekindled Interest is rated as a $41.00 chance in the 2011 Caulfield Cup, while in the Melbourne Cup, the son of Redoute’s Choice is currently being quoted at $61.00.