Madam Rouge expected to race on next season after Stradbroke placing
Zoustar mare unlikely to back up in Dane Ripper at Eagle Farm
Stradbroke Handicap (Gr 1, 1400m) runner-up Madam Rouge (Zoustar) is a doubtful starter in Saturday’s Dane Ripper Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m) with connections confident the rising five-year-old has bigger things in store next season.
The Chris Waller-trained Madam Rouge, a dual stakes-winning daughter from the first crop of Widden Stud’s Zoustar (Northern Meteor), is one of 23 nominations for the weight for age fillies and mares feature race at Eagle Farm.
But New Zealand agent Bruce Sherwin, who oversees the mare’s part-owner Raffles Thoroughbred Racing’s Australiasian interests, yesterday suggested that she was likely to be spelled.
Madam Rouge won the Magic Millions Sprint (1200m) at the Gold Coast in January and has subsequently raced in Sydney and Adelaide before returning to Queensland for last week’s Group 1 race.
She was narrowly beaten by the Toby and Trent Edmonds-trained Tyzone (Written Tycoon).
“I think the initial thought was to save her and go again next season,” Sherwin said yesterday.
“She made such good improvement from her three-year-old to her four-year-old year and the key the other day was getting back on a good track.
“She is a markedly superior horse on better ground and she proved that the other day and she also proved that she was up to that Group 1 standard when she gets conditions to suit.”
Madam Rouge won her second start as a juvenile, returning at three for a first-up victory before contesting a number of stakes races without breaking through. At four she has been successful in Listed and Group 3 level to go with her lucrative Magic Millions performance.
“She’s been a work in progress as she took a little while (to mature),” Sherwin said.
“She used to be a bit keen through the mid-stages of her races but she is getting more professional as she ages and as she gets more experience.
“It’s been a gradual progression but she’s continued to make those steps as she’s got older. The future definitely looks positive for her.
“I would leave (the decision to back up in the Dane Ripper) to Chris, but the early indications were that she would probably go to the paddock.”
Meanwhile, the continued closure of the Queensland border will also scupper plans for a tilt at the Dane Ripper Stakes for talented NSW provincial mare Oakfield Missile (Not A Single Doubt).
Wyong trainer Damien Lane yesterday confirmed the five-year-old, who won a heat of the Provincial Championships in February, would return to Rosehill on Saturday, the scene of her win two starts ago.
“With the restrictions and the like, I was hoping they were going to change and we could have gone up with her,” Lane said.
“But we’d have to send her up and get somebody else to look after her and take her to the races, so the owner was more than happy to stay and race in Sydney.”
A homebred for well-known Port Stephens businessman Bruce Mackenzie, who is also active at the weanling and yearling sales to add to his racing interests who carry the Oakfield moniker, the daughter of Not A Single Doubt (Redoute’s Choice) is nominated for a Benchmark 78 Handicap (1300m) and a Benchmark 94 Handicap (1300m).