The feature race win comes on the back of her Group 2 Richmond Oaks triumph and Hazelgrove is keen to maintain the momentum with another trip South up next.
“She’ll go to Wentworth Park in a Grade Four next Wednesday, hopefully not too tough a race to get a run in her legs before the heats for the Golden Easter Egg the following week,” he said.
“We’ll bring her back for the Fabregas Bogie Leigh Futurity, which will be her last age race before she hopefully is up to the Group races come Winter Carnival.”
Hazelgrove said the win was satisfying on several fronts, knowing the bitch was carrying her form and also added brood bitch value for a happy group of owners.
“It’s fantastic for the owners to have Group Two to her name and a feature race like this, when it’s all said and done she’ll be a sought-after brood bitch,” he said.
“It’s incredibly satisfying as a trainer I’ve really had to taper her schedule to be at her best for the big races and it’s working so far.”
- Tony Brett brought a strong line-up to the card headed by his three runners in the Young Guns Final, but it was three-year-old She’s a Sort who turned heads with a 29.82 victory in the Grade Five Fifth.
The bitch came into the race on the back of a three-race winning streak and four-straight was never in doubt after she exploded out of the boxes to win dominantly.
Brett said the bitch had shown flashes of potential in her early days but had found another gear after coming on season, which had made him re-evaluate what she was capable of.”
“I’ve had to bide my time with her it’s taken her a while for everything to click,” Brett said.
“She’s come back a different dog this preparation, she’s surprising me with what she’s doing each time she goes out.
“Her owners are from Rockhampton, so we’ll be headed there for The Cup in May, but she may be capable of more.”
- Big Bad Bob returned to his favourite box (7) after missing by a nose in last week’s 600m Free For All, but he wasn’t going to repeat the dose for Doctor George Clegg, forging clear for a comfortable 34.8sec victory.
“There is something about box seven that really agrees with him, he won The Townsville Cup out of the black and a couple of other feature races too,” Clegg said.
“It was very similar to last week he found the fence quickly from the draw but didn’t have any problems getting around the leader this time.”
Clegg said he was keen to keep the veteran going as long as he was holding his form and plans to breed with him when his racing careers over.
“As long as he keeps pulling up fit and well I’ll bring him back next week for another go at it while he’s in form,” he said.
“Everything he’s doing now is adding to his value post-racing career, he’s got plenty of runs on the board.”