Talented filly Philia rockets into Queensland Oaks picture
The supremely-bred Philia (All Too Hard) served notice of coming Group 1 glory to match her pedigree by leading throughout for a fighting victory in Saturday’s ANZ Bloodstock News The Roses (Gr 2, 2000m) at Doomben.
With the great Fanfreluche (Northern Dancer) as her fourth dam – and indeed boasting a 6f x 4f duplication of that Canadian blue hen – Philia made it four straight wins from six career starts in one of several local triumphs on a red letter day for Queensland racing.
Taken to the front on settling from gate seven of 16 by Kerrin McEvoy, the David Vandyke trained three-year-old repeatedly absorbed pressure to give nothing else a chance, kicking away into the home straight and holding on to score by 0.6 lengths.
A homebred for the Irwin Family Racing Trust and Harris Family Racing, Philia was a well-supported $3.70 second favourite and had enough in reserve to hold out Team Hayes’s fast-finishing $31 bolter Jenni’s Meadow (Brutal). Chris Waller’s Yulong-owned filly Movin Out (Staphanos) took third at $18, with Churchill’s Choice (Churchill) further swelling the first four dividend at $18.
Australasian Oaks (Gr 1, 2000m) winner Benagil (Manhattan Rain) appeared disappointing running tenth after being sent off the $3.50 favourite, as did 11th-placed Polymnia (Dundeel) at $10, Bella Montagna (Belardo) in 15th at $9, and Verona Rose (Castelvecchio), who ran eighth at $15.
All honours lay with Philia, who immediately shot to $3.50 favouritism for the Queensland Oaks (Gr 1, 2200m), supplanting Benagil who eased to $5.
And if she can win the Eagle Farm feature on June 7, Philia would add to an illustrious family.
There’s already a Queensland Oaks winner in its ranks in her half-sister Duais (Shamus Award), who took that race and two other Group 1s.
Plus, three-quarter sister Baccarat Baby (Casino Prince) won a Group 3 and a Listed, was placed at Group 2 level and ran fifth in two Group 1s.
The brood has been hatched by Meerlust (Johannesburg), who won merely a Grafton maiden among five starts, but whose trio of stakes victors sit among five winners from six runners.
But the gleaming star of the family is Fanfreluche, who despite being a 1967 drop appears as recently as Philia’s fourth generation, thanks to having borne that filly’s third dam aged 23.
Fanfreluche was a phenomenon, hence her place in the Canadian Hall Of Fame along with her also phenomenal sire Northern Dancer (Nearctic). She scored ten black type wins, including the Princess Elizabeth Stakes and Natalma Stakes, and in 1970 was the USA’s Champion three-year-old filly and Canada’s Horse of the Year.
Having packed all that into just two years, she went to stud at the end of her three-year-old season – sold for a world-record US$1.3 million – and carried on in the same irrepressible fashion.
For her first trick, she produced dual Canadian Horse of the Year L’Enjoleur (1972 Buckpasser). Later came two other champions in La Voyageuse (1975, Tentam) and Medaille d’Or (1976, Secretariat).
Fanfreluche even excelled in sheer fertility, producing no fewer than 18 named foals, from her first when aged five, to her last when 24, in 1991, and her many descendants now populate a vast array of the world’s finest pedigrees.
The esteem of the family is not lost on Vandyke, who’s hoping Philia can give him a second Queensland Oaks in four runnings, after the success of Gypsy Goddess (Tarzino) in 2022, a year after the Ed Cummings-trained Duais.
“She’s a half to Duais, a multiple Group 1 winner, and Baccarat Baby won at Group level, and she goes right back to one of the best families in the world,” Vandyke told Sky Thoroughbred Central.
“So it’s just an impeccable pedigree and of course [her sire] All Too Hard – I love the stallion, and she’s just full of guts and wants to do it.”
His doubts about Philia closing out a tough 2000m emphatically answered- and in her first run since taking Eagle Farm’s Princess Stakes (Listed, 1600m) a month ago – Vandyke said he was now looking confidently toward the 2200m of the oddly-distanced Oaks.
“I knew she was 100 per cent going into today. The 2000 metres was the question mark,” he said.
“But Kerrin made it staying test. He was taken on two or three times and he didn’t care, he just wanted to hold the front.
“Past the post the first time he had her off the bit, he was letting her roll. She had to sprint a few times during the race and yet she still had the audacity to kick at the top of the straight and hold off the late charge.
“So, moving forward into the Oaks, when she’s got that amazing racing pattern where she can just get taken on and absorb pressure, she loves it. And that was a month between runs, so now I’ve got that nice two weeks (before the Oaks), a hard run today – bring on the Oaks.”
While the swoopers were coming at the end of The Roses, McEvoy said he was confident Philia could see out the 2200m of the Oaks.
“She’s bred to, and I think she will,” he said.
“She was more relaxed in herself today, which is pleasing when you’re going out in trip. We just had to do a little bit.
“But she was doing it in herself, which is positive, and we just wanted to kick off the corner, which she did. She still had a bit of a stargaze in the home straight – she saw the barriers and thought ‘job done’ – so I had to get a little bit vocal with her. But she’s heading in the right direction.”
Philia is the seventh of nine live foals for Meerlust, whose two-year-old colt Waerea (Bivouac) is awaiting his first start with Brad Widdup.
After missing in 2023, she now has a weanling colt by Hellbent (I Am Invincible) at foot, and was covered by Trapeze Artist (Snitzel) last spring.
Philia is one of 20 stakes winners globally for the 15-year-old All Too Hard (Casino Prince), who’ll stand his 13th season at Vinery this year for $27,500 (inc GST), down from $38,500 (inc. GST).