Thompson hoping Benagil can rise to the Group 1 occasion once again
Glen Thompson is confident the rise and rise of his three-year-old filly Benagil (Manhattan Rain) will continue as she begins her Brisbane swing this weekend with eyes on a second Oaks triumph.
Benagil, who broke through at the top tier last start with a dominant victory in the Australasian Oaks (Gr 1, 2000m) at Morphettville on April 26, is due for a Tuesday afternoon flight from Melbourne to Brisbane.
There, she’ll contest Saturday’s $300,000 ANZ Bloodstock News The Roses (Gr 2, 2000m) at Doomben as a distinct favourite, with bookmakers having her around the $3.50 mark on Monday.
All going well, Benagil will close her campaign in the Queensland Oaks (Gr 1, 2200m) at Eagle Farm on June 7 before a light spring, with Thompson thankful that race has the quirk of being 200m shorter than the traditional Oaks distance. Mark Zahra is booked for both Brisbane rides after first meeting the filly at Morphettville.
For now, Thompson is not only delighted to have retained Benagil in his solo stable in the shake-up that followed the death of his training partner Mike Moroney in February, but is also ebullient over her chances in Brisbane, including after a month-long gap between runs in The Roses.
“She’s in good shape, and we’re really happy with her,” Thompson told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“We gave her plenty of time to get over the trip to Adelaide. She had a barrier trial last Thursday and has come through that in good order.
“She’s a horse we don’t do a lot of work with and that seems to work really well. She only had one gallop leading into her trial, and that was a nice trial,” he said of her fourth over 1000m at Caulfield Heath.
Benagil will take on a quality field in The Roses, with the $6 second favourite being David Vandyke’s local hope Philia (All Too Hard), winner of three from five including a last start success in Eagle Farm’s Princess Stakes (Listed, 1600m).
Three fillies shared third billing at $8 on Monday: Nathan Doyle’s exciting Churchill’s Choice (Churchill), another winner of three from five, who’ll seek to go one better than her last start second in the Queensland Guineas (Gr 2, 1600m).
John O’Shea and Tom Charlton’s Polymnia (Dundeel) who ran third to Benagil in the Australasian Oaks and Gary Portelli’s Verona Rose (Castelveccio), who won the Kembla Grange Classic (Gr 3, 1600m) before a fourth in the Vinery Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) and a sixth in the ATC Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m).
Still, as he looked back fondly on his career-affirming Australasian Oaks victory, Thompson was confident that all his exciting filly needed to do was hold her form as she headed north.
“It was a day I’ll never forget at Morphettville. Everyone who wants to train, they’re the sort of races you want to be winning,” said Thompson, admitting he had felt the strain as his old joint stable with Moroney was redistributed around him.
“It was just a bit of a shame it was a pretty ordinary sort of period away from that race. There was a lot of pressure to get the win, so it was a great feeling in the end.
“I think there’s a lot more to come from the filly, so hopefully it won’t be her last big win.
“I don’t think she’ll improve off it. I don’t think she needs to. Her form is as good as it gets at the moment.
“Her last two runs, she was not beaten far by Treasurethe Moment, and then won the Australasian Oaks convincingly. As long as she holds that form she’s going to be the horse to beat in Brisbane.”
A homebred for former Blue Gum Farm owner Phil Campbell and associates, Benagil won her first two starts at provincial level last winter before contesting four stakes races in the spring, with her best effort a 1.82-length fifth in Caulfield’s Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m).
She announced herself in winning the rich Vobis Guineas (1600m) at the same track second-up in March, before a strong 1.22-length second to the outstanding Treasurethe Moment (Alabama Express) in Rosehill’s Vinery Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m).
Thompson steered clear of the steep rise in distance to the ATC Oaks – won by Treasurethe Moment – and instead set a course for the shorter Australasian Oaks, which Benagil won in imperious style, by 1.29 lengths as a $3.10 favourite.
With a strong chance of rain forecast for Doomben from Wednesday to Friday, Benagil may face her first race on heavy going in The Roses. The prospect doesn’t worry Thompson, with the filly’s Vinery Stakes second coming on a deteriorating soft 7 at the Rosehill meeting postponed to the following Tuesday after a Saturday wash-out.
“She won her first two on soft tracks [soft 5s] and was second to Treasurethe Moment on a soft 7, which had been a wash-out three days before,” he said. “So I don’t think a heavy would worry her.”
Benagil will stay in Brisbane after Saturday in preparation for the Queensland Oaks, which is unusual in being held over 2200m.
It had been run at the standard 2400m from its 1951 inception until 2014, when it was moved across the road to Doomben for four years during Eagle Farm’s refurbishment and, by necessity, changed to 2200m.
After a year off for the pandemic, it returned to Eagle Farm in 2021 but, for reasons best known to no one, has stayed at 2200m.
As baffling as that is, it may work in Benagil’s favour in the $700,000 Classic.
“I think her best distances would be a mile to 2200,” Thompson said. “She might get 2400, but I’m not too sure.
“If you got her out to 2400, you’d be pushing your luck a little bit, but the way she ran out the 2000 in Adelaide, I don’t think the 2200m will be any problem for her.”
Thompson said he was “excited” to see how Benagil could progress as a four-year-old mare. Her next chapter may wait until the autumn, however, although Thompson said there was a chance she could contest late spring targets such as Flemington’s Empire Rose Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m).
“I’m excited to see what she does next. Whether it’s the spring or not, I’m not sure,” he said. “She’s had a pretty tough prep. She’ll have a nice break in Queensland in the warmer weather, and then we’ll just see how it pans out.
“I don’t think there’ll be any sort of ambitious plans in the spring, though she could perhaps come back and have a couple of runs towards the end of the spring, like in the Empire Rose.
“She could have a run before that, or she might miss the spring completely and maybe focus on the autumn.
“We’ve always had a high opinion of her, hence she ran in the better races in the spring, and she was pretty unlucky not to win one of them. She had no luck in the Thousand Guineas.
“But she’s definitely improving all the time, and I still think her best is ahead of her.”