Gerard seeking Oaks redemption
Pam Gerard almost picked up an Australian three-year-old major this season with Savaglee (Savabeel), and the Matamata-based trainer is back in pursuit of Saturday’s $1 million Australian Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) at Randwick.
Savaglee finished a close second to Feroce (Super Seth) at Flemington in the Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) last month, and on this occasion it will be the turn of Dubai Gold (Pride Of Dubai), who pushed star filly Leica Lucy (Derryn) to the wire when second in the New Zealand Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) last time out.
Connections subsequently opted to pay the late nomination fee and head to Australia, where she will race as Dubai Goldrush.
“She came through the [New Zealand] Oaks well, so we thought we’d have a throw at stumps,” Gerard said.
“She was always going to be an Oaks filly, she just took a while to work it all out. When she got that maiden win, she went massive in the Lowland [Stakes], she was three and four wide the whole trip. We knew if she could improve on that she’d be right in the [New Zealand] Oaks, and she was. I think if you get these fillies right, you keep going.”
The filly flew out of New Zealand on Tuesday and has arrived in Sydney, with the main portion of her work already complete.
“She hasn’t done a lot since the Oaks, it hasn’t been a long gap between runs and a bit of travel,” Gerard said.
“We are a little bit dictated to by the flights, so we’ve worked around that, but we did all our work at home, as we did with Savaglee.
“She’s come over well and is just ticking over into the race.”
With Mark Zahra set to ride, Dubai Goldrush currently sits a $16 chance with TAB.