Kelso’s Kiwi lass leaves a lasting impression
Ken and Bev Kelso’s ‘hit and-run’ Australian mission with Alabama Lass (Alabama Express) bore spectacular fruit as the filly brought her high-class form across the Tasman to claim an all-the-way win in the World Pool Sprint Classic (Gr. 3, 1100m).
The husband-and-wife training team are no strangers to success at Flemington, with Legarto (Proisir) knocking off the local brigade in the 2023 Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m), and Alabama Lass is likely to return to Melbourne to chase some spring riches after she embellished an already impressive race record.
Another daughter of Alabama Express (Redoute’s Choice) had been expected to create all the headlines at Rosehill, but when heavy rainfall in Sydney delayed Treasurethe Moment’s bid to win a second top-flight victory in the Vinery Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m), Alabama Lass stole the limelight with a dashing display under Craig Williams.
Alabama Lass, a $120,000 purchase from the Shadow Hill Thoroughbreds draft at the 2023 Inglis Premier Yearling Sale, was the highest-rated runner in the Sprint Classic field and – despite never having raced in a straight line before – was backed accordingly, with a late move seeing her odds trimmed to $2.50 in the 17-runner field.
The support was justified, with Alabama Lass holding off a late surge from Peter Moody and Katherine Coleman’s colt Gallant Son (Written Tycoon) to prevail by half-a-length and carry her record to six wins and three runner-up finishes from nine outings.
Despite the temptation to extend her Australian adventure in next month’s Robert Sangster Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) in Adelaide or the $5 million Quokka (1200m) in Perth, Alabama Lass will instead return home and head immediately to the paddock for some well-earned rest and relaxation.
Co-trainer Ken Kelso is a man of few words, preferring to let the performance of his horses do the talking, but the measured Matamata horseman conceded that he might not be able to keep a lid on expectations after his stable star took her earnings close to $900,000 with a fourth black type triumph.
“It was stunning really, she’s pretty special,” he said.
“She’s just a very fast filly, she puts herself there and keeps going. She relaxes early in her races, she drops the bit and just lobs along so she doesn’t exert a lot of energy, then she’s very fast at the finish. We left it up to Craig today, he’s ridden a few more winners than me so he knows what he’s doing, and they looked to be doing it pretty easily.
“So she’s very exciting – we’ll get her home and think about what we do next with her. There could be some nice races for her over here in the spring, but we’ll just take a breath first. She deserves a little spell now because she’s been up for a while, but it’s onwards and upwards from here.
“The good thing is that we know she handles the travel, because she coped with it well this week. We flew her to Riccarton [for the New Zealand 1000 Guineas], and she’d already been on a plane to bring her over when we bought her as a yearling, so she’s had a few long trips now and she has always coped with it really well.”
With Kelso’s go-to rider Mick Dee already booked to pilot Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr’s colt First Settler (Written Tycoon), Williams picked up the ride on Alabama Lass and made the most of his opportunity with a controlled steer.
As usual, Alabama Lass left the gates like a greyhound which enabled Williams to dictate terms from the front, with the pair picking up the pace from the 400-metre mark to win in a time of 1:03.57.
“Full credit to her trainers, they do such a great job with these horses,” said Williams.
“She’s really shown how good she is over there, and I was really fortunate and delighted to get the call up to ride her. It was a great race for her to come over for, Ken’s obviously got a great team around him and he brought the right product.
“The noise from the crowd might have inspired her too, because she seemed to get a bit lost in the straight and she wanted competition, she wanted energy from the crowd and that’s obviously what got her over the line in the end.” Rich Dottie (Written Tycoon) finished third.
Alabama Express (Redoute’s Choice), who stands for a fee of $55,000 (inc GST), is currently inside the top five of the second season sires’ premiership on both prize-money earnings and stakes wins, and will continue to climb the ladder if – as expected – Treasurethe Moment can double her haul of elite wins in the rescheduled Vinery Stud Stakes on Tuesday.
Both his stakes wins came over 1400 metres, and while Alabama Lass finished second behind Mark Walker’s smart filly Captured By Love (Written Tycoon) in the New Zealand 1,000 Guineas (Gr. 1, 1600m) over the Riccarton mile, Kelso is keen to keep her at sprint trips for the foreseeable future.
“We had a crack at the 1,000 Guineas because they’re only three once, and she relaxes so well in her runs,” he said.
“But she’s an out and out speed machine really, so we’ll definitely be keeping her to the shorter trips for now. She prefers firmer tracks, so that could play a part in our thinking when we look at the program in spring. I think her record could be even better because her last two defeats came on Soft tracks, but it’s still pretty good.”
Alabama Lass was the final foal left by the consistent producing Commands mare Tabliope, who was purchased by Rifa Mustang for $180,000 at the 2015 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale. Sadly the mare passed away while giving birth two years ago, but it looks like her legacy will live on for some time through the exploits of Alabama Express.
Alabama Express has one yearling going through the ring at the upcoming Inglis Easter Yearling Sale, with his filly out of Sent From Above (Lonhro) catalogued as Lot 150.