Emerging fillies put Classic credentials to the test in Thousand Guineas Prelude
Wide draw at Caulfield not expected to be a problem for fancied pair Coeur Volante and Bossy Nic
Rival trainers Mike Moroney and Tony McEvoy are confident emerging fillies Coeur Volante (Proisir) and Bossy Nic (Nicconi) have the class to overcome wide draws when they clash again on the remodelled path towards spring Classic glory in today’s Thousand Guineas Prelude (Gr 2, 1400m) at Caulfield.
In a race that again draws together the trifecta from last month’s Scarborough Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) at Moonee Valley, Coeur Volante will again meet Bossy Nic and Inhibitions (Zoustar) in a quality field that stood at 14 runners last night.
Despite looking ultra impressive in beating Inhibitions in the Scarborough, the extreme outside gate today has pushed Coeur Volante into second favouritism at around $5.50 behind the Godolphin runner, who’s at around $4.50 after drawing barrier two for James McDonald.
Bossy Nic, a hulking filly expected by McEvoy to take great benefit from her first-up third at the Valley, was last night around the $12 mark after drawing gate eight for Harry Coffey.
Also highly regarded as an equal second-favourite is Adelaide filly Lovely Lookin’ (American Pharoah), who bypassed a possible maiden win to take the last two of her three starts, in Benchmark 64 and 62 class at Morphettville, and who’s seeking to provide former Coolmore shuttler American Pharoah (Pioneerof The Nile) with a sixth individual Australian stakes winner.
Widden Stud, fresh from cheering Trapeze Artist’s (Snitzel) first stakes victory as a sire in last Saturday’s Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) via Griff, hold a strong hand in the Thousand Guineas Prelude, which precedes by a month the Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m), pushed back this year from it’s previous slot of last Wednesday.
Zoustar (Northern Meteor) – Widden’s flagbearer who’s off to a flyer this season with a share of the lead on the general sires’ table by winners with I Am Invincible – has not only Inhibitions but also New Zealand raider Zourion ($19), while Widden Victoria stalwart Nicconi (Bianconi) has Bossy Nic.
And veteran NSW-based breeder Tony Bott of Evergreen Stud has bred two key contenders. Moesha (I Am Invincible, $11), the $650,000 yearling who’s the tenth named foal of Bott’s star broodmare Princess Coup (Encosta De Lago), is having her fourth start in the Rosemont Stud colours after a maiden win and two placings. And Oz Empress (Exceed And Excel, $15), a filly out of Princess Coup’s first foal Vanilla Princess (Lonhro) who Bott fortuitously kept after she was withdrawn from her yearling sale, chases successive stakes victories in her seventh start for Bott’s son Adrian and training partner Gai Waterhouse.
Coeur Volante, a $90,000 Karaka purchase by Moroney’s Ballymore Stables and his brother and bloodstock agent Paul, trialled in New Zealand before debuting at Sandown with a fourth over 1000 metres in May. That was followed by a comfortable win over 1300 metres at the same track in mid-June, before the spell that preceded her last–start victory at Moonee Valley.
While the outside gate from Caulfield’s 1400-metre start is a decidedly tough obstacle for her jockey Blake Shinn today, Mike Moroney was last night confident of Coeur Volante’s chances, considering she overcame considerable adversity – both in the run and before it – in surging through traffic in the Scarborough to beat Inhibitions by a long neck.
“We gave her a break in the middle of winter, but she didn’t do that well,” Moroney told ANZ Bloodstock News. “We were hoping to get her right, but she came to the stable and she stood still there too for a while.
“She wasn’t eating very well at all, and it was only in the last three days before the first-up run that she started going onto her feed properly.
“So, we were a little worried about the first-up run but she was really impressive, and she’s gone on the right way now. She really just keeps improving.
“The barrier draw is not ideal, but it’s not hopeless for her. She got back when she won at Sandown, and got back at the Valley too. She’ll still need luck from that draw, but she’s a pretty smart filly, and if she can get luck she’ll be very hard to beat.
“She’s not fully mature but she’s got a fair bit of class, so we’re hoping that will take her through.”
With her last start, Coeur Volante followed the New Zealand Listed success of Australian Guineas hero Legarto in becoming the second stakes winner of the season for Proisir (Choisir). Having claimed his first New Zealand general sires’ title in just his fifth year of runners last term, and with 14 stakes winners from 248 runners overall, Proisir is currently serving a full book at Rich Hill Stud for $70,000 (plus GST).
Bred by New Zealand’s Fairdale Stud, Coeur Volante is the second named foal of five-time winning Australian mare Shanina (Testa Rossa). The first is Hasstobemagic (Scissor Kick), who’s Listed placed in New Zealand.
“We liked her on type,” Moroney said. “She wasn’t big, but was a lovely proportioned filly and a cracking walker. Even though her pedigree was good enough further back, it’s been filled in now with her, and she’s a half-sister to a stakes placegetter, so it’s filled in now with black type. She’s a pretty valuable filly now.”
Bossy Nic, a $190,000 Inglis Premier buy, looked exceptional in following a luckless debut second in Adelaide Listed class with a two-and-a-half length win in Flemington’s Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) in March. She battled strongly into fourth in heavy going in Randwick’s Percy Sykes Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m), and returned from a spell with her third, beaten less than a length, in the Scarborough, coming from seventh at the 400 metres.
“She was going to win at the 250 [metres], but just emptied out first-up,” McEvoy told ANZ. Bloodstock News. “She’s a big gross girl but those other horses just got her on the line, but she’s trained on beautifully and she’s in great shape now.
“We’ve always thought she was a classy filly. She blew the start first up in Adelaide and powered home to run second, won well at Flemington, then got bogged in the Percy Sykes. She’s a big, heavy girl so she’s not built for soft ground, but she ran very courageously.
“She’s got a sticky gate again, but she’s not an on-speed filly. It’s her first go at 1400 metres, which I’m not concerned about. We’ll just ride her where she’s comfortable and hope for a bit of luck.”
Amid the many tweaks of the Victorian calendar, largely in response to the ever-fluid scene in Sydney, many observers raised eyebrows about moving the Thousand Guineas to two weeks after the race for which it had been a traditional lead-up, the VRC Oaks (2500m).
Moroney said the switch suited Coeur Volante, who wouldn’t be in line for an Oaks start, but that “it’s not going to suit many”.
“It’s interesting,” Moroney said. “It’s the only jurisdiction in the world that doesn’t hold the Thousand Guineas before the Oaks. Now, you’ll get the odd one who’ll be freshened up from the Oaks to the Thousand Guineas, but it will be hard to freshen them after the Oaks and go back to the mile.
“Most fillies who can get a mile would tend to go on to the Oaks, against their own age and sex.
“But I suppose if it was going to work at any time of the year it could be this time of year, because they are still immature three-year-olds. And you’d have to say, when you look at the Guineas Prelude, they do have a full field, so that’s a vote of confidence.”
McEvoy gave the move the thumbs up, saying there were still other ideal Oaks lead-ups, such as today’s Ethereal Stakes (Gr 3, 2000m), next Saturday’s Fillies Classic (Gr 2, 1600m) at Moonee Valley, and Flemington’s Wakeful Stakes (Gr 2, 2000m) on Derby Day.
“I’ve got three or four who are possible Thousand Guineas fillies, and the move gave me a chance to give them an extra three weeks in the paddock, which was fantastic,” he said. “You didn’t have that chance before, coming off the Sydney autumn.”
Tony Bott has a main hope today in Oz Empress – who became Vanilla Princess’ first stakes winner in Caulfield’s Jim Moloney Stakes (Listed, 1400m) last start – and a secondary one in the Peter Moody and Katherine Coleman trained Moesha. Bred on the same farm, the pair will be reunited at least at the start, with Oz Empress springing from gate 10 for Winona Costin, and Moesha in 11 for Billy Egan.
Oz Empress failed a scope at last year’s Inglis Easter sale. She’s now earned connections $180,000 from two wins, well ahead of Exceed And Excel’s (Danehill) $88,000 service fee at the time of the mating.
“We thought she was a lovely filly, but there was something wrong with the scope and they said she wouldn’t pass the vet test, so we had to withdraw her from the sale,” Bott told ANZ Bloodstock News. “That’s been proven wrong, like a lot of things.
“Moesha was a very nice animal as well. She was the far better type of the two, which was echoed by the price. I know Rosemont have a high opinion of her.
“My heart says Oz Empress, but Moesha is a big chance. Gai and Adrian are quite bullish about Oz Empress, but whether they’re saying the same thing to all their owners I’m not sure,” the Bott patriarch said with a laugh.
“Adrian’s usually pretty guarded in his assessments with me. I don’t take any tips from him, and he doesn’t usually tip to me. And I don’t like backing many of their horses anyway, because I seem to jinx them.”
The four-time Group 1-winning Princess Coup – dam of the dual Group 3-winning mare Argentia (Frankel) – is due to drop her 13th foal, by Exceed And Excel, in the coming days. Bott is “tossing up” about then sending the 20-year-old mare to Newgate’s sensational but sub-fertile Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt).
“He’s apparently improved this year on his fertility in the early part of the season, so what I’ve heard from Newgate is they look like extending his breeding season into January – February, thinking people might still be willing to cop a November-December foal by him,” Bott said.
Bott, meanwhile, has another family entanglement in Randwick’s $1 million Five Diamonds Prelude (1500m) when his homebred Converge (Frankel) battles Democracy Manifest (Flying Artie), bred by his other son Aaron.