She’s Extreme returns with connections eyeing further big-race glory
Cummings confident autumn form can carry Champagne Stakes winner to more wins this spring
Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) winner She’s Extreme (Extreme Choice) is set to embark on a campaign targeting more Group 1 laurels today at Randwick with her trainer Anthony Cummings believing the fillies’ form which prevailed in the autumn will carry on into spring.
She’s Extreme and Fireburn (Rebel Dane) were the juvenile stars of the autumn, trading blows in four meetings. The Gary Portelli-trained filly ended up with bragging rights, relegating She’s Extreme to second in the ATC Sweet Embrace (Gr 2, 1200m) and Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) either side of her triumph in the Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m), in which her arch rival finished seventh.
Cummings’ stable star took revenge in thwarting Fireburn’s Triple Crown bid with a long neck victory over her in the Champagne. After the Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) win and Slipper third placing of the highly-rated Coolangatta (Written Tycoon) – who also resumes today at Moonee Valley – the Champagne quinella further highlighted the dominance of Australia’s young females over their male rivals.
That was underlined again last week when Fireburn was named two-year-old of the year at the NSW Racehorse Owners Association awards, with the other two nominees She’s Extreme and the Team Snowden filly Sheeza Belter (Gold Standard).
Fireburn will be long odds-on to claim the national equivalent at the Australian Racehorse of the Year awards in Melbourne tonight, with the same three fillies this time on a shortlist of five which also includes the Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Daumier (Epaulette) and fellow colt Best Of Bordeaux (Snitzel), the Slipper runner-up.
She’s Extreme was last night third-favourite for her resumption in today’s Furious Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m), her curtain-raiser to possibly a trio of Sydney three-year-old Group 1s: the Golden Rose (1400m) on September 24, the Flight Stakes (1600m) a week later, and – all going well – the Spring Champion Stakes (2000m) on October 22.
While today’s event and the Flight Stakes are fillies’ affairs, She’s Extreme would again face the boys in the Golden Rose and Spring Champion, a prospect holding no fears for Cummings about his bigger and stronger daughter of siring sensation Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt).
She’ll also resume battle against Fireburn in the Golden Rose and possibly the Flight, which Cummings anticipates could be a different matter.
“The fillies’ form should still be the stronger form in the spring,” the trainer told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday.
“It was that way in the autumn, and so far the colts have been a bit all over the shop on their returns in the spring. It doesn’t seem like the form of the autumn has held up for them.
“So the colts’ form has been patchy, and the fillies’ form gets found out in the next eight days – She’s Extreme tomorrow and Fireburn next week.”
Among the better-performed male juveniles from the autumn, Daumier resumed with a tenth in last week’s McNeil Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) at Caulfield and Best Of Bordeaux was fifth at odds-on in Randwick’s San Domenico Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m).
Semillion (Shalaa) – the Kindergarten Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m) winner who was fifth in the Blue Diamond – ran last of seven in the Vain Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m) at Caulfield on August 13. His Team Hawkes-trained stablemate Sebonack (Capitalist), fourth in the Blue Diamond, returned at Rosehill that day with a seventh in The Rosebud (Listed, 1100m).
Fireburn will reappear in next Saturday’s Run To The Rose (Gr 2, 1200m) – along with her stablemate and another star colt of last season Sejardan (Sebring) – before the $1 million Golden Rose. Those could be her only assignments of the spring, form pending.
“If she wins the Golden Rose, pulls up really well and she’s crying out to keep going, then we’ve got options right through the spring,” said Portelli, nominating the Flight and Caulfield’s Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) as possibilities.
“But if she does the typical ‘Golden Slipper hoodoo’ preparation, where they just don’t quite come up, I’ll be quick to pull the pin on the prep and turn her out to prepare for the autumn.
“It’s going to be interesting to see what does come out of the two-year-old form. There’s nothing so far that’s turned up that’s done anything out of the box that’s turned three, in Sydney in particular anyway.
“So the Run To The Rose will be an interesting race. It’ll tell us where we’re going at least.”
Cummings was enthusiastic over the chances today of the Aquis Farm-bred, Rob Crabtree-owned She’s Extreme, who warmed up with a nine-length fifth in a high-class Randwick barrier trial which stallion Malkovich (Choisir) won by five lengths.
Bookmakers last night had the filly at $6, behind Godolphin’s In Secret (I Am Invincible) at $3.90 and Paris Dior (Pierro) at $4.40.
Sheeza Belter ($10) also returns in the Furious for her first look at She’s Extreme, having traversed different formlines last campaign leading to her victory in Eagle Farm’s JJ Atkins (Gr 1, 1600m) in June.
“She’s Extreme has come back very well,” Cummings said. “She’s taller, a bit bigger at the girth and thicker through the middle. She’s 30 kilos heavier, at the high 470-kilogram range.
“She’ll run well. She’s too good not to run well. She improved every run last time in. She’ll improve the same way this time, but she’s starting off a much higher base, having had that experience at that level. She’ll come back at a level beyond what the others in the race have reached so far.”
Cummings did not think today’s 1200-metre distance would be a little too short for the filly, just as he didn’t feel the 2000 metres of the Spring Champion Stakes would be beyond her.
Extreme Choice is off to a flyer again this season, with five winners from nine runners. Newgate Farm’s sub-fertile superstar has sired only two runners beyond 1600 metres, but has one winner from one runner in the 1800-2000 metres range.
From two racing crops he has eight stakes winners from 46 runners, at 17 per cent. She’s Extreme – his only Sydney starter today – could provide his first stakes winner of the new term.
His only Moonee Valley runner is the Lloyd Kennewell-trained three-year-old colt Meridius, who resumes under Jamie Kah after the pair’s maiden win at Sale in June, in the Inglis Ready2Race Sale Plate (1200m). He’s in a tough field that includes Sebonack, Millane (Zoustar) and the much-anticipated son of triple Group 1-winning stayer Jameka (Myboycharlie), Sir Bailey (Impending).
Just behind She’s Extreme in the Furious market is North Star Lass, an eye-catching third at long odds first-up in the Silver Shadow Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) won by fellow daughter of early general sires’ leader Zoustar (Northern Meteor), Zougotcha.
In her first campaign, North Star Lass won on debut at Warwick Farm in March before a meritorious fifth behind Paris Dior on a Heavy 10 in the Percy Sykes Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m).
“She’s done a treat since her last start,” co-trainer Gai Waterhouse told ANZ. “She’s a really happy filly. Her run the other day was that of a filly going places, and I think she’ll run very well again.”
Much interest from the Waterhouse-Bott yard – and for Newgate’s future stallion barn – will centre on Moonee Valley and the resumption of the China Horse Club’s four-year-old entire In The Congo (Snitzel) in the McEwen Stakes (Gr 2, 1000m).
Last year’s Golden Rose winner ran third, second and ninth on Sydney’s heavy tracks in his autumn campaign, but returns today off two Soft 7 barrier trial wins at Randwick and Warwick Farm.
“He’s matured hugely through his break,” Waterhouse said. “He’s a very happy horse and he looks good. It’s his first go at Moonee Valley, and not every horse handles that, but he’s certainly in a good frame of mind and he looks the part. The 1000 metres could be a little short, but he is a speed horse.”
In The Congo was last night a $5 second-favourite, with Coolangatta a short $2.20 favourite for her first outing against older horses in the weight-for-age sprint.