LET BATTLE RECOMMENCE
Group 1-winning juveniles Lady Of Camelot and Hayasugi prepare to meet again in Moir Stakes
Sir Owen Glenn’s Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m)-winning homebred Lady Of Camelot (Written Tycoon) and the Clinton McDonald’s Blue Diamond (Gr 1, 1200m) heroine Hayasugi (Royal Meeting) will again face off in Group 1 surroundings when the pair make their respective returns as three-year-olds in Saturday’s Moir Stakes (Gr 1, 1000m) at The Valley.
The former, who also won the Widden Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m) and finished runner-up in both Hayasugi’s Blue Diamond and the Percy Sykes Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) (carrying 59 kilograms) in an impressive juvenile campaign, is the general $3 favourite to grab further glory in this weekend’s $750,000 weight-for-age contest.
Trained by the powerhouse duo of Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, Lady Of Camelot has taken in two trials prior to Saturday’s feature event, running second, beaten 0.4 lengths behind stakes winner Insurrection (Russian Revolution) over 850 metres at Randwick on August 5, before returning a fortnight later to beat dual elite-level scorer Giga Kick (Scissor Kick) by 1.3 lengths over the same track and trip, proving her current wellbeing.
“We think that physically and mentally she has come back a bit bigger and stronger than last season,” Go Bloodstock’s director Steve O’Connor told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“Gai and Adrian have been very happy with her, we thought she was excellent in her trials, and she’s travelled down with no issue.
“It’s always a challenge when you take on the older horses after their debut season but we couldn’t be happier with her going in to take on that challenge.”
The challenges facing Lady Of Camelot include dual Group 1 winner and Golden Eagle (1500m) hero I Wish I Win (Savabeel), who sits as the $4.50 third-elect, and improving four-year-old mare Estriella (I Am Invincible), who is the $4.20 second pick in the market after an impressive five-length trial success on August 26.
“We’ve got a good young jockey onboard in Zac Lloyd, she’s got the light weight [50 kilograms], profiles as a horse to run well in the race historically, and has drawn a good barrier [two] to either lead or sit on the pace,” O’Connor said.
“She was great for us last season, she very nearly won the two biggest two-year-old races of the year with the Slipper success and close second in the Blue Diamond.
“She then nearly broke the weight carrying record in the Percy Sykes, so she’s never let us down and we expect her to be thereabouts in the finish, and hopefully she gets the result.”
The question that has loomed over Golden Slipper winners in recent years is whether they have trained on from two years to three, with just She Will Reign (Manhattan Rain), who won the Slipper in 2017, adding another Group 1 win to her tally after that juvenile success.
However, that race happened to be the 2017 Moir Stakes, and She Will Reign also happened to win the Moir first-up as a spring three year-old, a feat Lady Of Camelot is bidding to emulate.
“It’s always a risk but we think she has trained on, I saw her before that latest trial and she looked as though she had physically taken a step forward,” a fully optimistic O’Connor said.
“Adrian thinks she’s more mentally seasoned and switched on, you’re always left wondering of course but the signs are that she has taken the next step forward.”
Lady Of Camelot is the third-consecutive Group winner to come out of Glenn’s stakes-winning Fastnet Rock (Danehill) mare Miss Debutante, following on from Group 3 scorers Queen Of The Ball (I Am Invincible) and Platinum Jubilee (Zoustar), who was also runner-up in the Silver Slipper (Gr 2, 1100m) and Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m).
“She’s definitely been a feather in the cap for Sir Owen, he’s very proud of the broodmare Miss Debutante and she has become our blue hen producing three Group-winning two-year-olds,” said O’Connor.
“We knew Miss Debutante was a very fast mare, so we bred her accordingly to stallions that we felt could produce elite sprinters and elite two-year-olds. That is where we have Lady Of Camelot pigeon holed, 1000 metres and 1200 metres is very much her go.
“It’s really what we strive to achieve with the broodmare band, so to have a horse like Lady Of Camelot, it was really special last year, and hopefully it’s only the beginning of the story.”
Those 1000-metre and 1200-metre races will, as we know, include this weekend’s Moir Stakes, but O’Connor admitted Go Bloodstock are also looking further down the line at potentially the Manikato Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) and the $20 million The Everest (1200m), the latter of which is the main target for the daughter of Written Tycoon (Iglesia).
“A lot of the Slipper winners are colts so they often have their value protected as three-year-olds, whereas our filly is going to be worth a lot of money no matter what she does this season, so we will taking on the racing challenge and not shying away from running her,” O’Connor revealed.
“There’s lots of races for her, whether it be Moirs, Manikatos, but The Everest is the big one we’re aiming at in the spring.
“We’re really hoping she can come back and run as well as she has been training at home, because we’re in for an exciting season if she does.”
Lady Of Camelot may be taking on her elders in Saturday’s Moir Stakes, but she will also face a very familiar rival in fellow three-year-old filly Hayasugi.
The Clinton McDonald-trained daughter of Royal Meeting (Invincible Spirit) also produced a brilliant juvenile campaign last season, winning not only the Blue Diamond, but also the Blue Diamond Prelude (F) (Gr 2, 1100m) and Blue Diamond Preview (F) (Gr 3, 1000m), becoming just the second filly after Midnight Fever (Luskin Star) in 1987 to land the trio of events.
Having ended her two-year-old campaign with a disappointing run in Lady Of Camelot’s Golden Slipper, where she came home last of the 16 runners after nearly unseating rider Jamie Kah coming out of the barriers, Hayasugi returned with a hugely promising third, beaten 2.6 lengths, behind subsequent Sandown-Hillside winner Pharari (American Pharoah) in an 800-metre barrier trial at Cranbourne on August 26.
“We couldn’t be happier with her,” Hayasugi’s part-owner Shane McGrath told ANZ Bloodstock News. “She had her winter holidays in the sun on the Gold Coast and has had two beautiful trials leading into the Moir this weekend.
“The only blemish she has on her copybook is that Golden Slipper run, where everything that could’ve gone wrong did. It’s a pretty hard feat for any two-year-old to win the Preview, Prelude, and Blue Diamond.
“She’s not grown any taller, but she’s definitely strengthened and thickened up. She’s the epitome of an Australian sprinter, and her attitude will take her a long way.
“The track should suit her, there’ll be a lot of speed up front and we will ride her just off the pace to flash home late and hopefully we’re good enough.”
Having run second in a barrier trial at Cranbourne last October, Hayasugi showed an abundance of ability when finishing a three-length runner-up behind subsequent dual stakes winner Bold Bastille (Brazen Beau) in the Inglis Banner (RL, 1000m) on her competitive debut.
A slightly disappointing fifth in the Ottawa Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m) was then followed by her narrow victory in the Blue Diamond Preview at Caulfield, for which she was sent off at odds of $5.50.
Returning to Caulfield for the Blue Diamond Prelude, Hayasugi was sent off an $8.50 shot and again ran out a narrow but gutsy winner, before being allowed to jump off as a $16 chance in the feature Blue Diamond itself despite her progressive profile.
Coming from the rear of the field, the filly produced a strong late run over the top of her rivals under Jamie Kah to collar her old foe Lady Of Camelot by 0.2 lengths at the line, completing the famous hat-trick of victories.
“In her first trial she missed the kick by about ten lengths, but Ben Melham came back in and said ‘this thing’s got a motor’, and she’s just kept improving to be honest,” McGrath said.
“She was double the price in the Prelude than she was in the Preview, and then double the price she was in the Blue Diamond than she was in the Prelude!
“She definitely slips under the radar and hasn’t quite got the gloss that a racehorse with her credentials is entitled to have, but she’s been a flagship horse for us.
“We don’t mind if Clinton’s yard operates under the radar a bit because you’ve just got to look at his strike-rate, generally what he tells you is going to happen tends to happen for us.”
McGrath, who in partnership with Dermot Farrington bought Hayasugi’s sire Royal Meeting for $750,000 when CEO of Aquis Farm, was also hugely influential in the purchase of his Group 1-winning filly, securing her for $47,500 in partnership with James Bester and Cara Mok at the 2022 Inglis Australian Weanling Sale.
“I brought Royal Meeting to Australia with Dermot Farrington when I worked at Aquis and we syndicated him between Aquis clients,” McGrath explained.
“I’d said I would look at all the Royal Meeting offspring just out of interest and Alex Leung, the husband of Hayasugi’s main owner Cara, had asked me to look out for a filly specifically.
“I remember seeing her [Hayasugi] and man alive when she walked out it didn’t matter what she was by or what pedigree she had, she was just a beast. You’re half rubbing your eyes thinking ‘what have we got here?’.
“I’m good friends with James Bester and I said ‘Look, you’ve got to come and have a look at this filly because I reckon I’ve found one’. He came down and said ‘Well Jesus, you haven’t gone blind yet, she’s a beauty’. So we bought her there and then she went to Segenhoe to grow out and looked to be a nice filly.
“There was never a massive boom feeling around her, but she just kept improving and Alex kindly asked if my wife, and Josiah Ma’s wife, would like to join his wife in the ownership. It’s pretty much their first ever ownership of a horse!”
Fillies and mares have a great record in the Moir Stakes in the past two decades, winning the race 11 times in the last 21 years in fact, including securing the trifecta in 2017, while also holding four of the first five places home in 2018 and 2020 respectively.
“The three-year-old’s have a good record with the low weight they get, but it is a hot race,” McGrath admitted.
“We beat Lady Of Camelot fair and square in the Blue Diamond, where we came from an unfavourable position off the pace, so I’m surprised there is so much between them in the market.
“However, the forgotten horse in the race for me is I Wish I Win. He’s ten or 12 handicap points higher than us for a reason and I can’t imagine they’re [connections] worried about his weight.
“If he runs to his top in this and we’re within a length of him, whether it be behind or in front, I’d be more than happy.”
Looking toward the season ahead, McGrath revealed Hayasugi could stretch out beyond 1200 metres at some stage, but that connections also have eyes on the Manikato, Everest, and even potentially Guineas targets later in the spring.
“It’s all dependent on her running well, but we’d like to go the Moir, Manikato, and see from there,” he said. “I think after the Manikato we will know whether she wants to go to Prelude, then the [Caulfield] Guineas, or we stick to sprinting with maybe The Everest, or we could stick to three-year-old company.
“She couldn’t be doing any better, she’s licked up the feed bowl, Clinton is delighted with her, so I think we’ll let her do the talking on Saturday.”