Basilinna to put staying credentials to the test in Oaks
Brownes banking on homebred Staphanos three-year-old for breakthrough Group 1
Advice from retiring champion jockey Damien Oliver has expatriate Kiwi David Browne confident that his homebred filly Basilinna (Staphanos) is primed for today’s VRC Oaks (Gr 1, 2500m).
The three-year-old, still in her maiden racing preparation, was a closing last-start third in the Ethereal Stakes (Gr 3, 2000m) on Caulfield Cup day and Pakenham-based Browne and his wife and training partner Emma-Lee elected to bypass the traditional Oaks lead-up, last Saturday’s Wakeful Stakes (Gr 2, 2000m).
Basilinna – by Novara Park’s shuttler Staphanos (Deep Impact) out of NZ$500 Gavelhouse-purchased mare, the stakes-placed So Royal (Shinko King) – is $8 third favourite for the Oaks behind Wakeful Stakes runner-up Zardozi (Kingman) ($2.90) and Ethereal Stakes second placegetter Tropical Squall (Prized Icon) ($4.40).
Autumn Angel (The Autumn Sun), who won the Ethereal, was spelled by trainers Peter Moody and Katherine Coleman after her Group 3 win rather than pressing on to Flemington.
Browne has had no reason to second guess himself since Basilinna’s last-start run and again had no qualms about his decision to skip the Wakeful after watching it unfold last Saturday.
“Ollie jumped off and said that he couldn’t pull her up. She went another 400 metres than everything else because she was running through the line very strongly,” the trainer told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday.
“His opinion was that we probably don’t need to start her and there was no reason to run when she’s got a lot of staying ability and she’ll stay out the trip.”
With those forward of midfield dominating the Ethereal, Flight Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Tropical Squall leading and Autumn Angel (The Autumn Sun) on the fence only a few lengths off her, Basilinna was forced to go back from barrier 11, settling second–last in the run before making her charge to finish two lengths off the leader.
From barrier two in the Oaks, however, Browne believes Basilinna will settle closer.
“At her first start she got a good barrier and she raced close to the speed and at her second start she had a bad barrier [7] and she raced three wide no cover and still won [at Cranbourne],” Browne said.
“At her next two starts we’ve had bad barriers and we’ve gone back and she’s hit the line well both times.
“We think she’ll bounce in a better spot without having to do too much work. She may not be right up on the speed, but she’ll be in a much better spot where she won’t have to give away so many lengths in the run.”
The in-form stable’s past three horses to the races have all won and Browne hopes the rich vein continues with Basilinna.
“She is a very strong-willed filly on the ground and she drags you around the place and she is definitely in charge,” he said.
“She is very big and strong and since she’s hit Australia, she’s gone forward. She has just blossomed.”
The Group 1 status of the Oaks carries enough credence with it, but a victory for the homebred would hold extra significance for the husband and wife operation given they also raced another horse by her dam sire Shinko King (Fairy King) to win eight races.
Browne recalled: “Funnily enough, So Royal was a small breeder’s horse who was put on Gavelhouse. We’d been over here [in Australia] with Monarch Chimes for two jumping campaigns and we lost him from an accident, so I bought this filly’s dam, a Shinko King mare, for Emma, so that’s how she came about.”
They then decided to mate her with Staphanos, who is also the sire of last season’s first crop Manawatu Sires Produce Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) winner Pignan and the stakes-placed winner Medatsu, both in New Zealand.
“We went and looked at him at the parades and we just loved him when we first saw him,” Browne said.
“He was just a racehorse. He hadn’t let down properly, but you could see how much of an athlete he really was.”
Basalinna has a sister, So Royal’s last foal, who was sold at this year’s Magic Millions National Yearling Sale to Shangri-La Consulting Australia for $60,000.