Lady Laguna adds first Group win to glowing record
OTI Racing’s Lady Laguna (Overshare) again showed how she had blossomed into a formidable four-year-old by scoring her third straight win and her first at Group level in the Southern Cross Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) in slick time at Rosehill yesterday.
Bought as a foal out of the paddock from Victoria’s ill-fated Spendthrift Farm by OTI’s Terry Henderson in 2020, Lady Laguna scored her sixth win and boosted her prize-money to more than $1.45 million in comfortably beating her six rivals yesterday.
Starting $2.25 favourite, she settled behind leader Malkovich (Choisir), eyeballed the six-year-old into the straight, and went past him under hands-and-heels riding from James McDonald to score by a length and three-quarters. Hard To Say (Exceed And Excel) took second, with Malkovich third almost a length away.
Lady Laguna, the second foal of three-time New Zealand winner Catalina De Lago (Encosta De Lago), began her career with a bang, winning an Eagle Farm two-year-old handicap in November, 2021, and taking her second start three weeks later on a Heavy 10 at Rosehill.
She didn’t win again in her next 13 outings, including an unplaced run in the 2022 Golden Slipper, though she was stakes-placed seven times.
But she broke through again last April to become a stakes-winner in Doomben’s Mick Dittman Plate (Listed, 1100m), and has since boomed again. Her subsequent six starts comprise her current winning hat-trick – which begun with another Doomben Listed victory, and followed with her grandest payday, in taking last month’s $1 million Magic Millions Fillies and Mares (1300m) on the Gold Coast. Two seconds and a third amid those past six starts have helped give her eight stakes placings in total.
“She’s a star, she’s three on the bounce now. Her CV’s getting bigger and bigger” trainer Annabel Neasham said. “The great thing with her is she’s so diverse. She’ll go on a bottomless track, she’ll go on a firm deck. She can be on speed, she can sit back.
“She jumped really well today which was pleasing to see because she was coming back in trip from two runs where she had been ridden a bit quieter. She just makes her own luck, she’s very tenacious and I think she will just keep on improving.
“It would be great if she could stretch out a little bit further because obviously there’s a couple of nice mares races at the top level. We’ll just take it a race at a time, but delighted with that.
“She’s very sharp. We were not sure at the Magic Millions whether she’d get that trip [1300m] but she did and James [McDonald] thought she’d get further. We just freshened her up for us, she’s only had one gallop since the Magic Millions and she’s just a real athlete. Fantastic for OTI.”
Neasham said Lady Laguna would likely have her chance to add to her already strong value by becoming a Group 2 winner next start in the Millie Fox Stakes (Gr 2, 1300m) over the same course and distance on February 24.
Lady Laguna may also be a rare commodity for reasons other than the class that has carried her to six wins and ten placings from 22 starts.
Older half-sister Orizaba (More Than Ready) was unraced, while younger half-sister Lindelago (Bolt D’Oro) died last year after one run. Lady Laguna’s dam Catalina De Lago, bought by Kingstar Farm in 2022, hasn’t had a foal since Lindelago in 2020. She was covered by Newgate’s State Of Rest (Starspangledbanner) last September.