Opal Ridge leading Rubick’s hopes for second Group 1 winner
The curtain falls on Group 1 racing for the 2022-23 season today with Eagle Farm’s Tattersall’s Tiara (Gr 1, 1400m), a chance not only for fillies and mares to boost their breeding stocks, but for several stallions to claim a timely top-tier success ahead of the spring.
Rubick (Encosta De Lago) has had only one Group 1 winner in five seasons of runners, although the Swettenham Stud sire has had Yes Yes Yes win an Everest (1200m). But having had to wait until last September for Jacquinot’s victory in Rosehill’s Golden Rose (Gr 1, 1400m), he has a strong hope of claiming his second top–level win for the season through three-year-old Opal Ridge, the likely favourite for today’s 1400-metre feature.
Capitalist (Written Tycoon) has made steady progress up the general sires’ list – to a personal best of 18th in this his third year of runners – after starting out with silver medals on the first season and two-year-old sires tables, and an immediate Group 1 win via Captivant in the ATC Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m).
He’s still awaiting a second Group 1 triumph, but has his chance today as Tony Gollan’s four-year-old Comrade Rosa seeks a third straight win, in another step up in class and distance after taking a 1200-metre Listed race and a 1300-metre Group 2, both at Eagle Farm.
Former shuttler Foxwedge (Fastnet Rock) has had five Group 1 winners in four countries, but only two in Australia, the outstanding mare Foxplay and the 300-1 Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) victor Lunar Fox.
His courageous five-year-old mare Foxy Frida has tantalised the stallion’s Woodside Park studmasters with two lower–level stakes wins – and ironically her largest payday was when she was successful last start in Eagle Farm’s $500,000, but non-black type, Magic Millions National Classic (1600m).
She’s yet to contest a Group 1, but is well regarded at around the $13 mark today to provide a second such win for trainer Andrew Noblet, who took his first with Silent Sedition (War Chant) in the William Reid Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) of 2017.
And, more than just long-awaited, top-tier success would come a little too late for several other sires with leading contenders today.
No Nay Never (Scat Daddy) has Team Hayes’ $14 shot Lady Of Honour backing up after taking Saturday’s Eye Liner Stakes (Listed, 1350m) at Ipswich. Three years after the Coolmore stallion stopped shuttling here, he could reap his second Australian Group 1 – and his second this season – after Madame Pommery’s MRC Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m).
Fighting Sun (Northern Meteor) died three years ago next week, but has Peter Moody’s Chain Of Lightning as an $8.50 chance today, the four-year-old whose Group 2 and Group 3 wins are Fighting Sun’s only two Group victories at stud.
Tavistock (Montjeu), who died in December 2019, will be strongly represented by $5 second-favourite Ruthless Dame, a Ciaron Maher and David Eustace-trained filly who became his tenth elite-level winner in last month’s Robert Sangster Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m).
And six-year-old Chaillot, having her last start before a second try at a breeding career, will start around $10 as she strives to break a long drought for her sire Testa Rossa (Perugino), who was retired after the 2018 breeding season. The most recent of his three Australian Group 1 winners was Ortensia, with her Winterbottom Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) victory – way back in 2011.
The race, in fact any race in 2023, represents a late change of plan for the Gerry Harvey-bred Chaillot. A three-time lower-level stakes-winner for Archie Alexander, she was bought by Trilogy Racing for $400,000 as a breeding prospect at last year’s Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale.
After three starts attempting more black type on unsuitable wet tracks in Melbourne for Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr, Chaillot was put to Swettenham’s flagbearer Toronado (High Chaparral) last November 1, but missed. Trilogy decided to continue racing her, transferring her to surging Brisbane trainers Steve O’Dea and Matt Hoysted, where she appears to have been born again.
Her first start there brought another, comfortable, stakes win in the Sunshine Coast Cup (Listed, 1400m), with her usual barnstorming finish from near last on the turn. Put away again in hope of exploiting her strong first-up record, she resumed with another fast-finishing run, in a stronger Group 1 than today’s, when a two-length fifth in Think About It’s (So You Think) Kingsford Smith Cup (Gr 1, 1300m) on May 27, after struggling for room on the fence for much of the straight.
As she seeks to claim a Group 1 at her eighth attempt before heading to the breeding barn, Chaillot is rated a strong chance by her trainers, with a dry track and a strong pace in today’s large 17-horse field expected to favour her swooping finish up Eagle Farm’s long straight. The mare drew gate 11, but will start from seven without the emergencies, with Ben Thompson to ride.
“She’s very good. We’re very happy with her,” Hoysted told ANZ Bloodstock News. “She’s got a really good fresh record, hence we left it a month between runs with her.
“She’s done well since coming up here. I think just the change of environment, but also just being able to get her on top of the ground for her last couple of runs has been a key.
“We know her best is good enough for this race. She’s always been a pretty serious racehorse on her day, but she does need things to go her way a bit, the way she races. She had to come up the inside in the Kingsford Smith but once she got into the clear, she really let rip. Hopefully she can have clear running from her gate this time.
“It would be great for Trilogy, who bought her as a broodmare prospect, if she can bow out with a Group 1 win.”
Success for Opal Ridge would also be a breakthrough, indeed a life-changer, for trainer Luke Pepper.
The filly – a mere $20,000 purchase from the Inglis Classic sale for part-owner Ryan Hunt – has been a treasure for the 42-year-old Pepper since he left Canberra to set up in Scone a year ago with his small team of 35 horses.
She’s flown the flag of her trainer – the former trackwork rider for Queanbeyan’s most famous son Takeover Target (Celtic Swing) – with five wins and three seconds from 11 starts. Two of those victories have been at Listed level, another in Randwick’s $500,000 Tapp-Craig (1400m). She’s earned more than $700,000 and will attempt her first Group 1 today.
After winning the Luskin Star Stakes (Listed, 1300m) on her home track, Opal Ridge was forced to travel three and four wide, from gate 11, at her next start, a month later, when a game neck second in the Dane Ripper Stakes (Gr 2, 1300m) over the same trip, behind today’s opponent Comrade Rosa.
“I can’t fault her. She’s had a really good week,” Pepper said of Opal Ridge, who’ll jump from gate five, after emergencies, for Tyler Schiller. “I really think that first-up run’s brought her on. It was a tough run, but she’s come through it well. I’ve been able to space her runs all the way through – it was four weeks from Scone [Luskin Star Stakes] to the Dane Ripper, and now two weeks to this, and she’s handled it great.
“I did try to qualify her for the Stradbroke Handicap, but she only got to be an emergency there, but this was the race we really wanted.
“Hopefully she can land midfield, one off the fence. If they go quick and she’s a bit further back, it’s not the end of the world, because she’s got that turn of foot. But if they go slower, she can land closer as well. Drawing that gate has helped us dictate where we are.
“Winning a Group 1 would mean everything to me. I’ve been in racing a long time, been lucky enough to ride a couple who’ve won Group 1 races, and been there and seen what it’s about. To have one in my name, I’d be incredibly proud, and it’d be a great result for my team. Just to get a runner in a Group 1 is massive.”
Gollan has watched Comrade Rosa blossom, in a Chaillot kind of way, since she was switched north from John O’Shea early this year. Having won a maiden and a Benchmark 64 in 12 starts out of Sydney, she’s won four – all at Eagle Farm – and placed in two of her six for Gollan. Having taken a Benchmark 72 three starts back at the end of her last preparation, she’s progressed to win a 1200-metre Listed and, last start, the 1300-metre Dane Ripper.
“She’s just kept getting better with each run,” Gollan said of Comrade Rosa, who’ll spring from barrier three for Ryan Maloney. “She feels great and has drawn well and she’s as good as I can get her.
“I’ve been fortunate to get her up here. I watched her a lot in Sydney, and I think she’s enjoyed the sea change up here, but I think she’s also just matured into this prep.
“She’s come out of a couple of low–grade restricted races last prep into this carnival, with me really not knowing where she sat in this mares’ grade. This was going to be the target if she was good enough, and she’s certainly shown that she is.”