Speedy Storyville gunning for unlikely Group 1 victory

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Overshare filly bids to give Team Williams a fifth win in the Northerly Stakes

Storyville (Overshare), who was bred for speed and shows middle distance promise is rated a strong chance by bookmakers of becoming the latest Grant and Alana Williams-trained filly to lift the Northerly Stakes (Gr 1, 1800m) this Saturday.

Team Williams have saddled four winners of Ascot’s $1.5 million weight-for-age feature, including star three-year-old fillies in three-time Group 1 winner Arcadia Queen (Pierro) in 2018 and Perfect Reflection (More Than Ready) three years earlier.

Fillies of that age, thrown in with 50 kilograms, have a superb record in the race – winning four of the past nine – with Neville Parnham’s Kay Cee (Playing God) successful in 2019, and the outstanding Amelia’s Jewel (Siyouni) prevailing in 2022.

The Williamses are reluctant to put Storyville in the same class as Arcadia Queen and Perfect Reflection just yet, but feel quietly confident she can bring them a fifth Northerly, having also triumphed with older geldings Truly Great (Dundeel) in 2020 and Regal Power (Pierro) a year later.

Storyville – bred by her trainers out of unraced Bob Peters-bred mare New Orleans (Time Thief), and named for the old red light district of that city – has come through an identical preparation to Arcadia Queen before her win in the Northerly, then named after eastern states champion Kingston Town (Bletchingly), perhaps a little perversely to western ears.

Both had two runs to kick off the campaign before tackling a well-worn fillies’ black type path at Ascot.

Arcadia Queen finished third in the Burgess Queen Stakes (Listed, 1400m), and then won the WA Champion Fillies Stakes (Gr 3, 1600m) and the WA Guineas (Gr 2, 1600m) before taking the Kingston Town by 4.5 lengths as $2.25 favourite.

Storyville disappointed when eighth in the Burgess Queen, but won the Champion Fillies 11 days later by 1.78 lengths, and then took the Guineas a week after that by 0.28 lengths, as a $4.40 second elect.

A $6 equal favourite for the Northerly on Monday alongside Mitch Freedman’s Group 1 winner Attrition (Churchill), Storyville will have another major plus in common with Arcadia Queen and Perfect Reflection on Saturday, with western wizard William Pike the regular rider for all three.

“It’s a huge step up, it’s always a test,” Grant Williams said, “but you get a good advantage with the weight, and that’s something we’ve been able to use to our advantage a few times in the past, so I can’t see why we wouldn’t be able to do it again.

“To win this race, you just need to settle and have a turn of foot. Storyville is a big, scopey filly, which the others were too, which is good.

“Most importantly though, she’s tough. She’s been bouncing through the races.

“It’s pretty hard for the fillies – they race pretty regularly. They have the Burgess Queen, then soon after the Champion Fillies, and a week after that they have the Guineas. Normally if they can stand up to that, the toughness will stand up for itself.

“So, we’re pretty happy with her. We just took her to the beach for a few days after the Guineas and she kicked back pretty good. The way she’s been hitting the line, I think the 1800 metres is probably right in her wheelhouse.”

Williams admitted he left breeding considerations to his wife, who “has a bit of a gift for that sort of stuff”.

And as far as breeding goes, if she succeeds on Saturday, Storyville may be something of an accidental 1800-metre winner.

Alana Williams bought New Orleans for $4,000 from a Peters dispersal sale in 2016, having trained the mare.

She wasn’t raced due to various minor issues, but had shown her trainers enough in trackwork. That included matching strides with a stablemate of the same age in Royal Star (Redoute’s Choice), who was placed three times at Group level, most notably when second in the WA Oaks (Gr 3, 2400m) as $1.35 favourite, and third in the Perth Cup (Gr 2, 2400m).

“New Orleans worked up with Royal Star and held her own,” Alana said. “Although they were different types, they were good fillies.

“New Orleans was a good type, with a big motor, and had ability. She was a sprinting type, and Royal Star was a staying type, but both just gave you the impression they were above average.”

Williams moved to add staying power by putting New Orleans – based in the eastern states – to Fiorente (Monsun) twice, producing Crescent City, who ran a Listed second over 2000 metres, and his unplaced sister French Quarter.

A third mating with Dundeel (High Chaparral) brought 1800-metre Listed placegetter Axeman’s Jazz, and a match with Palentino (Teofilo) yielded 1600-metre winner Pirate’s Alley. Williams then changed tack and put New Orleans to Overshare (I Am Invincible), the now-Widden based stallion then at the ill-starred Spendthrift Australia.

“The I Am Invincible line horses have done well in our stable in the past,” she said. “They seem to be able to handle their work, so I was looking for an I Am Invincible line stallion.

“I was very taken by Overshare’s pedigree, which was an outstanding international pedigree with lots of champion horses on it, and I thought that would complement the mare. Previously, I’d put her to staying stallions, so I wanted to try something different.”

New Orleans’s mating with Overshare (pictured below) gives Storyville a close 3f x 3m duplication of Redoute’s Choice (Danehill). And with Canny Lad (Bletchingly) being the damsire to all-time great and the current king I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit), Canny Lad is tripled at 4f, 5f x 5f.

“I didn’t think too much of the double Redoute’s Choice at the time,” Williams said. “I’m still learning as I go and there’s a lot of theories, but I go with my gut a lot of the time. It’s worked out alright in the end with this one.”

Overshare with Time Thief (Redoute’s Choice) mares is running at 100 per cent stakes winners to runners, since Storyville is the only member of that club. However, I Am Invincible over Redoute’s Choice runs well, with 59 winners at 85.5 per cent of runners, and three stakes winners at 4.3 per cent.

Storyville showed ability – and the expected dash – from the get-go. A barrier trial second at Lark Hill in January had her trainers mulling over autumn’s two-year-old Karrakatta Plate (Gr 2, 1200m), but they decided to wait.

“She’s always been a very professional filly,” Alana said. “I could have got her going early for the Karrakatta Plate but we resisted the temptation because she’s a nice big filly and was a late October foal, so I didn’t want to push the boundaries too far, even though she was going really well at the trials. So we held off for another prep.”

Her trainer’s patience has been rewarded handsomely, as Storyville won by two lengths on debut over 1000 metres at Belmont in May, before a third over 1200 metres at the same course. She was then turned out for more development and resumed with a 1200-metre win at Bunbury. Two starts later, she became a black type winner in the Champion Fillies Stakes.

She is the second and best stakes winner that the Williamses have bred, after dual Listed victor Chocolate Holic (Blackfriars).

The filly is also the second black type winner for Overshare, after an eastern states mare who was also competing in Perth on the weekend in Lady Laguna, the four-time stakes victor who ran sixth in Saturday’s Winterbottom Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m).

The Williamses have high hopes the substantial Storyville may skip along under her postage stamp 50 kilograms on Saturday to emulate Lady Laguna by winning a Group 1 – even if 1800 metres wasn’t envisaged in her mating.

“She’s really bred to sprint but she’s got the dynamic and the physique of a horse who can run further,” Alana said.

“Even though we went to Overshare for sprint attributes, she’s got the length and stride of a miler-plus, but she’s got the speed of a sprinter. So they’re good qualities to have.

“We’re really happy with the filly. You don’t know how she’ll measure up against good, older, seasoned horses, but her level of ability is good enough. It’s not easy to win the Champion Fillies and a Guineas in one prep, so she’s definitely above average.

“Let’s see how she measures up against the big boys.”