Empire Rose plan for classy Quintessa
Te Akau-raced mare Quintessa (4 m Shamus Award – Chaquinta by High Chaparral) will be prepared for the Empire Rose Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) at Flemington on November 2 after she battled to success in Saturday’s Cockram Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) at Caulfield.
A Group 1 winner in her native New Zealand, the Mark Walker-trained mare had proved herself in Australia last season with a runner-up effort in the Alister Clark Stakes (Gr 2, 2040m) sandwiched between fourth-placed runs in both the Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) and Australian Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m).
Returning first-up in Saturday’s Group 3 event, the four-year-old daughter of Shamus Award (Snitzel) gamely got to the lead inside the final 100 metres and defeated Extratwo (Toronado) by 0.8 lengths under Daniel Stackhouse, with La Danseuse Rouge (Manhattan Rain) back in third.
Stackhouse revealed post-race that Quintessa had gotten slightly worked up in the stalls, having been made to stand for a while after Skybird (Exosphere), who was eventually withdrawn, got down in the stalls.
“She did a good job after standing in the gates for that long,” Stackhouse said. “She got a little worked up. She stepped lovely and followed Wrote To Arataki, who gave us a nice cart into it. I had Extratwo on my outside, so I was a little bit rough on the corner just so I could make sure I had the room to improve into the race and then she did the rest.”
“I gave her a little trot and canter on Thursday just to have a bit of a feel of her. She’s a class horse, a Group 1 winner in New Zealand at a mile. The team changed things up a bit, keeping her to the shorter trips this time around so they’ve done a great job.”
Stable representative Ben Gleeson confirmed the Empire Rose plan, saying: “It’s been a long time since [the ATC Oaks]. She went home and spelled at Te Akau Stud, so she got prepped over there by Mark, Sam, and the team.”
“She had one jump out, one trial. They’ve been happy with her, and she galloped just before she came over and really pleased Mark.”
“There’s a lovely program for these fillies and mares. She’ll go two weeks to the Let’s Elope, and ideally, we’re getting her to Flemington, Cup week, and running in the Empire Rose. That’s probably the perfect race for her. If we keep training her like that mile type of mares time around so they’ve done a great job.”