Vintage crop: Who were the standout 3-year-olds of this generation?

Cover image courtesy of Sportpix

As the dust begins to settle on another season of racing, we can take this opportunity to sit back and reflect on who were the standout performers of this year’s 3-year-old crop. Nic Ashman joined TTR AusNZ to review what he considers to be a particularly vintage crop of fillies.

“These were the best fillies we’ve seen,” Ashman said. “They are proper horses, and their times suggest that.”

Four fillies in particular loom largest in Ashman’s review of the season.

“These four fillies are all running times of Group 1 weight for age horses. Normally, how it works is even if there’s a standout 3-year-old filly in any given season, they’re usually running times of Group 2 open class horses. If they’re not so much of a standout, they could be running no better than a benchmark class horse.

“This year, we’ve got four of them, all of whom have shown they can run a rating that would see them competitive in a Group 1 weight for age race. It’s elite. If you get one, it’s very good. To have four - I’ve never seen it before.”

Lady Shenandoah: outstanding in the autumn

“There’s not much of her, but she was very good in the spring and she was outstanding in the autumn,” Ashman said. “In the Surround Stakes and the Coolmore Classic, she was running fast times.”

Hermitage Thoroughbreds-owned and Chris Waller-trained Lady Shenandoah (Snitzel) is the first of Ashman’s top fillies; the $525,000 yearling first showed her talent as an autumn juvenile, playing in both of her starts, but it is as a 3-year-old that she has truly blossomed.

Unbeaten in five starts this season, three at the highest level, she burst onto the spring scene with victory in the G3 Ming Dynasty Stakes before landing a devastating win in the G1 Flight Stakes by more than three lengths.

Lady Of Camelot (Written Tycoon) has been her biggest aggressor through the autumn, but the daughter of Snitzel has emerged on top at every clash. After their first-up battle in the G2 Light Fingers Stakes, Ashman commented that Lady Shenandoah “trialled like a bomb” before the race, but that performance was no reflection of what the filly could unleash on raceday.

Lady Of Camelot almost nabbed her next start in the G1 Surround Stakes, but Lady Shenandoah was just too good.

“Her winning the Coolmore Classic is evidence that these 3-year-old fillies are better than the older mares.”

Beating standard time in the G1 Coolmore Classic by five lengths, Lady Shenandoah signed off her autumn with aplomb - and earnings of over $1.8 million - and Ashman has ideas for what’s no doubt going to be a knockout spring preparation.

“She's not an overly big horse,” he said. “I don't know if you can get more than three runs in a prep out of her, or I don't think you can bank on it. So maybe they go towards a Golden Eagle and go from there. I'm not too sure, but I'm sure Chris will work it out.”

Aeliana: the true stayer

“She was always profiling as a stayer,” Ashman said. “She’s never run a bad race - she might have found some of these races a bit short for her, but she still raced well in them.”

A large part of the breakout season for Arrowfield Stud’s Castelvecchio, Star Thoroughbreds-owned Aeliana (NZ) didn’t trial until the July of her 2-year-old season, but that had her ready to roar come the spring. She was a winner at her second start, over 1150 metres, but her true colours started to shine in October when she stepped out to win the G3 Reginald Allen Stakes over 1400 metres in Sydney, before a trip south to nab the G3 Carbine Club Stakes at Flemington.

Carbine runner-up Another Prophet (Brazen Beau) would turn the tables on Waller’s emerging stayer in the G1 1000 Guineas, but Aeliana improved from 11th at the 400-metre mark to snatch second from Too Darn Lizzie (Too Darn Hot {GB}), landing less than half a length behind the winner.

Come the autumn, Aeliana was ready to tussle with the boys. After her third-placed run in the G2 Hobartville Stakes, Ashman pinned her as the one to follow - and Broadsiding (Too Darn Hot {GB}) only snatched the G1 Rosehill Guineas away from her by a nose two starts later. In the shadow of the post, another stride or two would have delivered the filly to victory.

Her last 200 metres in the Guineas was run two lengths quicker than standard time for the event, throwing her hotly into G1 Australian Derby contention.

“Her time that she ran in the Derby was exceptional,” Ashman said. “It was a high rating Derby because of her, but it’s only her that you would want to follow out of it because she beat the others by five lengths.”

The win took Aeliana’s prize money to over $2.25 million and has landed her in many a black book - including Ashman’s - ahead of the spring carnival’s bounty of staying contests.

“I think Aeliana should be Caulfield Cup bound. She'll carry about 52 kilos in a Caulfield Cup and be very hard to beat. If she goes to a Cox Plate, she’s then got to tackle Via Sistina. Now, if she goes to a Cox Plate and Chris wants to take her there, that's a very good sign.

“Maybe she goes there as a tune up for the Melbourne Cup. Maybe that's how good she is.”

When was the last time a rising 4-year-old looked this likely to win a G1 Melbourne Cup?

“If she wins the Caulfield Cup, she could go to the Melbourne Cup and she would rightly be the favourite for it.”

Treasurethe Moment: Via’s challenger

Yulong Investments retained Treasurethe Moment (Alabama Express) to race, and the filly has given them a season full of moments worth treasuring. Trained by Matt Laurie, there have only been two occasions in 11 starts where she has finished anything other than first, and once she hit Group level, she has been an unstoppable force.

“She’s been running very good time as well,” Ashman said; he recognised her as one of three fillies who could pose a threat to Via Sistina (Ire) (Fastnet Rock) over 2000 metres come the spring after her victory in the G1 Australian Oaks in April.

Treasurethe Moment’s second Oaks didn’t go quite as smoothly as her first - the G1 VRC Oaks in the spring - but she still finished nearly half a length ahead of runner-up Sun ‘N’ Sand (Pride Of Dubai), with subsequent G1 Queensland Oaks winner You Wahng (So You Think {NZ}) in third.

The result made for Treasurethe Moment’s eighth consecutive victory, and sixth consecutive stakes victory, in a season that netted her nearly $2.5 million in earnings.

“She strikes me as a mile to 2000 metres horse, rather than a natural stayer, so I think the Empire Rose for her is probably a nice target if she doesn't go to the Cox Plate.”

Dare Yulong stage a clash between their best filly and their best mare?

“It’s entirely possible - depending on what Via Sistina does - that Treasurethe Moment could go to the Cox Plate and win. It could happen. I’m not saying it will, but it could.”

Autumn Glow: the lady in waiting

A $600,000 weanling into a $1.8 million yearling when purchased by Arrowfield Stud and Hermitage Thoroughbreds, Autumn Glow (The Autumn Sun) has always had heavy expectations on her shoulders.

A dominant winner of all three starts in the spring, she is the third on this list to be trained by Waller, as well as the third by an Arrowfield stallion. Her first win came by two and a half lengths in a Saturday race, and it’s all golden performances from there.

“We haven’t seen the best of her yet, I suspect, but she’s obviously a prime candidate for the Epsom Handicap - or any Group 1 handicap - because she’s not a Group 1 winner, but she’s running Group 1 times,” Ashman said. “She just hasn’t had the chance to do it yet.”

After taking out the Listed Darby Munro Stakes as a lowkey return in the autumn, there were whispers that Autumn Glow would head to the G1 Surround Stakes. Instead, she was bound for the G2 Arrowfield 3YO Sprint, but she was scratched on race morning due to spiking a temperature, and was subsequently sent to the paddock to be saved for a more perfect spring.

“To be fair, Chris Waller is probably going to John Messara and saying, ‘look, John, she's very good, and nine times out of 10, we could probably just let her get over this and go and win a Group 1, but there's a horse in my stable called Lady Shenandoah, another one called Aeliana, and there's a horse called Treasurethe Moment running around at the moment. They are very good. We can't afford to be coming off any kind of setback".

“She's an unbeaten filly. They want to keep that intact, and I can totally understand that.”

Given the way Autumn Glow ate up the ground in the 1400-metre G2 Tea Rose Stakes back in September, Ashman is certain that the G1 Epsom Handicap is the logical aim for the filly come the spring.

“She needs to target a big mile handicap, so the Epsom seems the logical path.”

So how do the boys stack up? Ashman is not so sure this has been a high quality crop of colts and geldings, but acknowledges that sometimes the racing schedule for colts makes it a little difficult to draw a proper comparison to the rest of the cohort.

“Colts are placed to enhance residual value. It’s a whole different beast than if you have a gelding; the gelding goes for the race that suits him, whereas the colt has to race where he will most increase his value. That’s always tricky for punters when looking at the form.”

Broadsiding: the initial champion

Retiring to Darley’s Kelvinside property to stand alongside his father for $66,000 (inc GST), it’s an easy argument to make that Godolphin’s homebred champion Broadsiding is the standout colt performance of the season. No colt scored a win in open company, but the Champion 2YO Colt was the best of those who tried.

“Broadsiding was the initial champion after his Golden Rose victory,” Ashman said. “He was unlucky in the Caulfield Guineas, there’s no doubt about that, and then he placed in the Cox Plate. So, going into Christmas, he looked like the best 3-year-old in the country.

“The first taste we got of the 3-year-olds against the older horses was obviously Broadsiding in the Cox Plate, and he acquitted himself. Via Sistina was running unbelievable times, so forget about her for a second.

"Prognosis runs second, so outside of Via Sistina who just went to this unbelievable new rating that no one’s ever seen, Broadsiding was the first Australian horse home. He’s done a very good job, it boded well (for the rest of the crop).”

Running home 2 lengths behind international raider Prognosis (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) in the G1 Cox Plate is a more than credible effort for Broadsiding. He returned back to his own age group in the autumn for two victories and a second in the G1 Randwick Guineas to a rejuvenated (gelded) Linebacker (NZ) (Super Seth), where several of his cohort started to catch up with him.

“He resumed with a win in the Hobartville in the autumn, but we all knew he was lucky to win that race. Swiftfalcon was better late than him and Aeliana looked better than him as well, at least to my eye. He battled a bit from there on out.”

While Broadsiding ran home well in the Hobartville, all eyes would have been on Swiftfalcon (Exceedance), whose last 600 metres was run seven lengths quicker than the standard time for the grade; Ashman was certain that he would be the next to leap up in grades.

Swiftfalcon: waiting to pounce

But Swiftfalcon, trained by the Hawkes Racing team, didn’t ever get the chance to quite deliver. Reflecting on predictions he made post-Hobartville, Ashman remains adamant that the G1 Doncaster Mile route would have suited the gelding better.

“Swiftfalcon is a bit of a cat,” he said. “He gets back and can produce a good, sharp turn of foot. In my opinion, he was poorly placed. I thought he should have gone to the Doncaster Mile Prelude and tried to win that, and back up into the Doncaster with a light weight. I just don't think he's a stayer, and they tried to get him to stretch out.

“That said, he never disgraced himself. He always performed admirably, so I don't want to be too harsh on him or the placement of him.”

Winless since his victory in the Listed Dulcify Stakes in the spring, nevertheless, Swiftfalcon notched several placings through the autumn and was fourth by a small margin behind Plymouth (The Autumn Sun) in the G3 Frank Packer Plate at his most recent start.

“I think he's kind of like an Autumn Glow type,” Ashman said. “Not the same ability, but he needed to be in a Group 1 handicap, because he hadn't won a Group 1 race, so he was always going to get that weight relief, but he just didn't get there.”

Broadsiding is the only star currently leaving the frame, but the remaining picture going into the spring looks very exciting; if these fillies are this good now, just how much better will they be with a few more weeks furnishing?

“We will have the three spring majors - the Caulfield Cup, the Cox Plate, and the Melbourne Cup. If Treasurethe Moment and Aeliana could win the first two, all of a sudden we’d realise, ‘wow, that was an unbelievable crop of 3-year-old fillies last season’.”