Poster Girl brings up the Magic Millions double
A switch back to shorter trips has led to a bumper summer for Poster Girl (Alabama Express), the Chris and Corey Munce-trained mare who claimed her second feature in eight days at the Gold Coast on Saturday.
After taking last weekend’s $250,000 Rising Stars 3YO & 4YO feature over 1300 metres for fillies and mares by 0.45 lengths, Poster Girl backed up on Saturday to scramble home in the $1m Magic Millions Fillies & Mares over the same trip.
Backed late to start at $7.50, Poster Girl was impressive in doing it the hard way in what developed into a two-horse war from a long way out.
She crossed from gate 12 of 18 for Martin Harley to sit outside the leader, the Lucy Yeomans trained $4.80 favourite Jenni The Fox (Too Darn Hot), who had the advantage of barrier two.
The pair were in front on settling and were able to dictate a moderate pace. Let loose on straightening, they then fought an epic battle down the straight. Jenni The Fox looked beaten at the 200m but fought back tenaciously on the inside to force Poster Girl to dig deep as the two hit the line locked together, with Poster Girl prevailing by 0.02 lengths.
The John O’Shea and Tom Charlton-trained Countyourblessings (I Am Invincible) had loomed on the first pair’s inside near home but had to settle for third, 0.15 off the leader, at $21.
Group-placed via her second in Storm Boy’s (Justify) BJ McLachlan Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) in 2023, Poster Girl has now won six of her 17 starts and four of her past five – two over 1200 metres and two over 1300 metres.
A $160,000 Magic Millions Gold Coast purchase for senior owner Gerard O’Toole and Arthur Hoyeau, Poster Girl has added $718,000 to her coffers in the past eight days, her earnings having soared past $1.3m.
The four-year-old’s career surge has come after her father-son training team was moved to rethink her distance targets, following an ignominious end to her last campaign with a ninth in Doomben’s The Roses (Gr 2, 2000m) and a 14th in the Queensland Oaks (Gr 1, 2200m).
“Gee she was tough. She fought back and she was a sitting duck there for a while but she’s done nothing but improve this preparation. She is best kept fresh over the shorter trips,” Corey Munce said.
“The way the race was going to work out, we probably needed to be closer today from the draw. I didn’t expect him to be outside the lead but he [Harley] had a pretty nice time there.”
Chris Munce added: “The thing about this mare is that we tried to train her as a stayer last time and I think she runs a strong mile but I think she got hampered by wet tracks which she hates. A firm track like today suits her.”
Harley was equally impressed with Poster Girl’s fight, especially having raced on successive Saturdays.
“I wasn’t sure if I held on or not,” he said. “With the week back-up, she’s got the heart of a lion and she got up when it mattered.”
Bred by Yulong and sold through their draft at Magic Millions Gold Coast in 2023, Poster Girl is the fifth foal of the unraced American-bred mare Caricature (Dubawi).
Her second dam, Brattothecore (Katahaula County), was a dual Listed winner and dam of another two-time stakes victor in City Style (City Zip), who won a Group 3 in England, a Listed in the US, and was thrice Group 1-placed in Dubai.
Caricature now has a colt by Grunt (O’Reilly) who is entered for the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale in March (Lot 544), a foal sister to Poster Girl, and was covered by Yulong’s new sire Growing Empire (Zoustar) in November.
Alabama Express (Redoute’s Choice), the nine-year-old who stood at Yulong for $66,000 last spring, up from $55,000 (inc GST), has four stakes winners from 116 runners, and 63 winners overall.