It’s hard to go past Samantha Miss (3f Redoute’s Choice-Milliyet (NZ), by Zabeel (NZ), pictured) in Thursday’s G1 VRC Oaks, 2500m. She is as dominant a filly in her generation as were recent winners Miss Finland, Serenade Rose and Special Harmony at the same stage in theirs, the only difference being they were all trained in Victoria.
All she’s got to do, and I say all, is prove she’s trained on and prove she can handle 2500m. Flemington should suit her better than Moonee Valley where she briefly got off stride but her closing effort in the G1 W S Cox Plate was meritorious. Her spring preparation has been a model of good timing and she looks as good a stayer as Miss Finland, the fine Redoute’s Choice filly who won this in 2006.
Kimillsy (3f Danehill Dancer (Ire)-Lady Fidelia, by Snippets) should have won Saturday’s G2 Wakeful Stakes quite easily; hers was the best run in the race which is frequently a good guide. A Danehill Dancer filly, Arapaho Miss, won the race last year but as this Cup carnival has illustrated graphically through the success of interstate horses, the class of 2007 in Melbourne left something to be desired. Four of the top chances this year are trained in NSW. The Danehill Dancers which genuinely stay are in the minority though we saw Moatize run a bottler in the Melbourne Cup on Tuesday. Out of a Snippets mare then a Biscay mare, Kimillsy doesn’t appear to have the pedigree for 2500m but she will get a cheap run from gate two and ought to be in the finish though, like every other filly from Sydney, Samantha Miss has always had her measure.
Seven fillies carry the blood of the number one stamina influence, Sir Tristram (Ire). To save you looking them up they are Samantha Miss, Rocha, Oval Affair, Miss Scarlatti (NZ), Tobouggie Woogie, Allez Wonder and Poco Gusto. It's 16 years since the last NZ-bred won this classic, Slight Chance (NZ) in 1992. Miss Scarlatti (NZ) is the only hope this year but if Samantha Miss does the business at least it can be said she was bred by Kiwis!
Bart has won the race eight times and has two engaged, Think Money (3f Danehill Dancer (Ire)-Ponziani (NZ), by Nassipour (USA)) and Allez Wonder (3f Redoute’s Choice-Luna Tudor, by Military Plume (NZ)). Both are maidens, both have the Cummings trademark running style of getting back and getting home, and both are owned, wholly or in part, by Dato Tan Chin Nam. Lee Freedman is a four-time winner with a superbly-bred and in-form pair this year, Miss Scarlatti (NZ) (3f Stravinsky (USA)-Crimson, by Zabeel (NZ)) and Estee (3f Redoute’s Choice-Tycoon Lil, by Last Tycoon (Ire)).
Unlike the VRC Derby, who moans and groans about the VRC Oaks being 2500m and too taxing on the fillies at this time of year? Owners of fillies who are often also breeders will grab any chance to get black type so in they go. In the long run, you don’t run value off a filly for the odd over-ambitious failed attempt. When people look at dams' records in a catalogue they basically take regard of the races shown, not the ones which aren’t, whereas most bad runs are used in evidence against an aspiring young stallion.
How many times do you hear, “She’s a nice mare, she was stakes placed", as against “No stud would have him, he’s only stakes placed.”
I wonder if the Sex Discrimination Commissioner knows about this?
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Bishop's Disease must be catching. Imitation is said to be the sincerest form of flattery, and I suppose I should be grateful somebody reads my blog. A Melbourne Cup story appearing in the breeding section of the nation’s number one racing website bears a more than passing resemblance to my blog, below. Journos are a lazy mob. I know. Thirty years ago I was one.
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