Lady Laguna grabs first Group 1 in Canterbury Stakes
Lady Laguna (Overshare) produced a brave performance to win yesterday’s Canterbury Stakes and she could now chase further elite-level spoils with Annabel Neasham revealing her ‘iron woman’ could now head to the Coolmore Classic (Gr 1, 1500m) at Rosehill next Saturday.
Sent off at $11 under Tyler Schiller, the four-year-old mare was allowed to bide her time near the back, as Sam Clipperton aboard The Everest (1200m) champion Think About It (So You Think) made a mid-race move to circle the field and camp off the leaders.
As Think About It attempted to raise another effort in the straight, Schiller brought a race-fit Lady Laguna down the outside with a sweeping run to defeat the Joe Pride-trained favourite by a length and a quarter. The Chris Waller-trained Esponia (Extreme Choice) was a further nose away in third.
Her jubilant trainer Annabel Neasham said while she wasn’t expecting the win, she also wasn’t entirely surprised given the set-up of Saturday’s Group 1 race.
“I can believe it because she is so tough,” Neasham said. “She’s racing out of her skin at the moment and we’ve been so happy with her at home, so I was quietly confident, particularly as some of the others, the favourite, was first-up.
“We were a little bit further back than I wanted to be but it was a beautiful ride by Tyler [Schiller] and I’m so over the moon she is a Group 1 winner.
“I didn’t gallop her on Tuesday because in the back of my mind I had the Coolmore for next week as well, so I thought, we’ll just keep her fresh because she has been up a long time,” she said. “We kept Tyler booked for that race in case we did want to do that, but we will get her home and see.”
Schiller celebrated his first Group 1 win aboard Mariamia (Toronado) in last year’s The Galaxy (Gr 1, 1100m) and the young rider said it felt just as good the second time around.
“It feels as good as the first time,” Schiller said. “I actually thought she was going to get rounded up late, but she just kept kicking and she was strong for the 1300.”
It has been a lucrative few months for Lady Laguna, with the mare having won at Listed level in Queensland, before taking the Magic Millions Fillies and Mares (1300m) in January and then winning the Southern Cross Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) last month.