Empire awaits trio of fillies

By Bren O'Brien

The appeal of the G1 Empire Rose S. as a Group 1 target for 3-year-old fillies has grown significantly in the past five years, and in 2020, three fillies, Odeum (Written Tycoon), Chica Fuerte (Hinchinbrook) and Forbidden Love (All Too Hard) will contest the race.

There have been two 3-year-olds win the fillies and mares feature since it was upgraded to Group 1 status in 2004, I Am A Star (I Am Invincible) in 2016 and Shoals (Fastnet Rock) in 2017, with two fillies also placing in the race during that time period.

Overall, 11 fillies have contested the race in that period, with eight of those coming in the past five years. The race has now become a legitimate step from the G1 Thousand Guineas at Caulfield and a look at those 11 fillies sees 10 of them having come through that race (Thousand Guineas). The only one who didn't (come through the Thousand Guineas) was Oohood (I Am Invincible) in 2018, and she came through with a third placing in the G1 Caulfield Guineas against the colts on the same day.

Table: 3-year-old fillies in G1 Empire Rose S.

This year Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr's Thousand Guineas winner Odeum is at the top of the market, but in a slight diversion from history, the other two 3-year-old contenders emerge from different formlines. The Anthony and Sam Freedman-trained Chica Fuerte comes off an all-the-way win in the G3 Ethereal S. at Caulfield, while Forbidden Love, prepared by Richard and Michael Freedman comes through her win in the Listed Reginald Allen Quality at Randwick.

Michael Freedman said the race came into his calculations as it became apparent that Forbidden Love would appreciate a step up in distance and her stakes options were limited in New South Wales.

"There wasn't a great deal left for her up here in Sydney, so then it was a matter of deciding which race might suit her best. Once we went through the programming down there, having a crack at a race over a mile, where she would carry a very light weight, that was the right option," he told TDN AusNZ.

"It was something in the back of my mind for the last three or four weeks and when she came out and won the Reginald Allen and carried a big weight to do it, obviously running a good time in doing that, at that point it was worth a go."

That it is two stables in the Freedman family that have been eager to tackle the open age mares in the Empire Rose should not surprise, given it was Lee Freedman's star Alinghi (Encosta De Lago) who was the first filly to tackle the race at Group 1 level back in 2004.

Sent around a $1.70 favourite, she failed by the smallest possible margin to New Zealand mare Miss Potential (Dolphin Street {Fr}).

Three years ago, it was Anthony Freedman's Shoals who won the race and Chica Fuerte will become the Melbourne-based Freedman stable's first Empire Rose runner since on Saturday.

A chance at a Group 1 stamp

With no great depth to the open age mare ranks this year, it shapes as a great opportunity to get that valuable Group 1 stamp and that certainly came in to the thinking of Michael Freedman with Forbidden Love.

"This year, for whatever reason, doesn't look potentially as strong on paper as it might have in previous years. The three 3-year-old fillies going around in it, obviously the Thousand Guineas winner being the most favoured of them, they look to have potentially a good chance in the race," he said.

While the market was the two Freedman fillies at around $21, there is plenty of confidence in Odeum's hopes for Price and Kent Jnr, and she is a clear $3.60 favourite to win her second Group 1.

Her managing owner, Sheamus Mills, who picked the daughter of Written Tycoon out of the Newhaven Park draft at the 2019 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale for $420,000, said he was always going to be guided by Odeum on whether she would press on past the Guineas and to this race.

"Whether I'm spelling a horse or a horse is in work or whatever, I do think that old adage about the horse telling you where it’s at is pretty true. I never like to pigeonhole them to having X number of starts in a preparation," Mills said.

"All I said to Mick was why don't we keep her there a week. I wanted to see she had come through the run well before she was set to go to the paddock anyway. If she bounces off the run there is an option there for three weeks.

"Mick was always with that plan. If he wasn't happy with the plan, he would well and truly tell me. I don’t think you have to second guess what Mick is thinking and there was no resistance there."

What is remarkable is that Odeum will head into the race at just her fifth start, having not debuted until August when winning a Moe maiden. But the fact is her first racing preparation has not prevented her from continuing to thrive since her impressive Thousand Guineas win.

"She put her hand up to stay in work. The guys in the stable tell me she hasn't left an oat. She seems as bright and bubbly as ever," Mills said.

"Michael Walker is telling me her work is probably better than when she went into the Guineas. You never really know when they run out of petrol, but all the signs from the rider, the stable staff and everything else is that she is as good if not better than when she went into the Guineas."

A different path for fillies

The elevation of the Empire Rose has changed the spring pathway of those fillies with Group 1 aspirations against their own sex in the spring. Previously, the only Group 1 option past the Guineas was to progress to the VRC Oaks over 2500 metres, but the trend of late has been away from that path.

"A horse like Chica Fuerte, the fact she isn't going to the Wakeful and then the Oaks, does the fact that these 3-year-olds are taking on this mile race, point to the argument around the Oaks and the Derby and whether they should be 2000 metres?" Mills said.

"There's a lot of trainers here keeping their horses lighter-raced, training them more Euro-style and we don’t have to step them through their distances all the time. Perhaps a few more of those people who have these fillies are thinking, if you want to have a crack at a Group 1, you have to get to 2500 metres. Therefore are people now looking to this mile race?"

It's interesting to note that of those 11 3-year-old fillies to have run in a G1 Empire Rose S., only three have gone on to contest the VRC Oaks the following Thursday, with only Mosheen (Fastnet Rock), sixth in the 2011 Empire Rose S., successful in the Oaks.

What also attracts the 3-year-olds to the Empire Rose is the substantial weight advantage that the fillies get, with a minimum of 7.5kg less than their older rivals under weight-for-age conditions.

Both Michael Freedman and Mills admit that the 49kg played a major part of their thinking when deciding to send their fillies to this race.

And there is a quirk in the fact the race is held in October this year, which means an extra 1kg advantage for the 3-year-olds. The weight-for-age scale works on a monthly calendar and two years ago where four fillies contested the race on November 3, they carried 50kg.

"It's interesting you are effectively getting a kilo for one day," Mills said. "If you happen to win by a short half head, you can almost put it down the fact it's held on October 31 not on November 1."