Fresh legs vs quick back up: Who nailed the campaign, not just the pedigree?

Cover image courtesy of The Image Is Everything

How’s your stamina? After a massive Derby Day and huge Melbourne Cup won by the locally bred Half Yours (St Jean {Ire}) over a field of flashy imported stayers, Cup week rolls into Oaks day on Thursday to test everyone’s stamina.

Early on the card is the fan favourite Subzero Handicap for grey horses, and the much-anticipated return of R. Listed Magic Millions 2-year-old Classic winner O’ Ole (Ole Kirk) in the G3 Red Roses, but the Oaks is the reason everyone is there.

Dating back to 1861, the G1 Victoria Oaks has a huge list of graduates and history shows that often it is the horse with the most class and quality who wins. It’s not necessarily about stamina but about having the ability to dominant her rivals.

Fillies such as G1 Golden Slipper winner Miss Finland (Redoute’s Choice) and Champion 3-year-old Filly Samantha Miss (Redoute’s Choice) both won the Oaks after running in the G1 Cox Plate, a testament to their outstanding class.

The strong record of the Wakeful

In the last seven years, four Oaks winners have won the G2 Wakeful leading into the Oaks. Treasurethe Moment (Alabama Express) in 2024, Willowy (Kermadec {NZ}) in 2021, Miami Bound (NZ) (Reliable Man {GB}) in 2019, and Aristia (Lonhro) in 2018 all won the Wakeful/Oaks double.

Over the full history of the Wakeful Stakes, going back to 1932, 39 winners have gone on to do the Oaks double. More recently, six of the last seven winners coming through the Wakeful. Both Zardozi (Kingman {GB}) and Personal (Fastnet Rock) ran second in the Wakeful.

The only Oaks winner in the past seven editions who came through a non-Wakeful pathway was She’s Extreme (Extreme Choice) who ran third in the G1 Spring Champion at the start prior to winning the Oaks.

Table: Record of Oaks winners in the G2 Wakeful Stakes

Pinecliff's pair are ready to succeed

This year’s G2 Wakeful Stakes was won by Getta Good Feeling (So You Think {NZ}) with Strictly Business (Grunt {NZ}) and Voting Rights (Snitzel) in third. All three line up in the Oaks and notably both Danny O'Brien-trained Getta Good Feeling and Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained Voting Rights are owned by Pinecliff Racing.

“Both trainers think both fillies have come on since the Wakeful. They are both happy with them,” said Pinecliff Racing’s Jonathan Munz.

“We are thrilled with the Wakeful form history and we hope the trend continues for these two fillies.”

Munz’s bloodstock agent Dean Hawthorne purchased Getta Good Feeling at the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale for $525,000 from Milburn Creek’s draft.

“She was the pick of the fillies in that Easter sale for us. Dean Hawthorne picked her, he’s our bloodstock manager and picks all our horses. He's a very good judge, so when he said he loved the filly, that was enough for me. I think we paid $525,000 for her, and if there was competition we might have paid more. The So You Think’s have a ceiling (at the sales) so she was expensive for him but she was a cracking filly.” She's certainly repaid that faith already.

“Danny has done a good job with her. He’s a very good trainer. She won (the Wakeful) with a bit in hand and hopefully she continues and follows the Wakeful trend. She’s won the Manifold over a mile, and she ran a very good third off a slow pace in the Thousand Guineas. There’s not really anything else in the race has similar achievements, so if she runs the 2500 metres out, you’d think that she deserves to be the Oaks favourite.

“Everyone knows that a horse's form doesn’t necessarily reflect in the performance on the day, but we hope it does. You can never be certain in a Group 1.”

Munz bred Voting Rights, whose dam is Susan B Anthony (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) who Dean Hawthorne Bloodstock and Badgers Bloodstock purchased as a broodmare prospect for 560,000gns (AU$1.2 million) at the 2019 Tattersalls December Mare Sale. Susan B Anthony placed as a 3-year-old in America and has two foals before Voting Rights who is her best runner to date.

“She’s a nice type. She’s out of a Galileo mare, so she’s what you would expect in terms of that cross and gets her staying ability from that side. He’s a fantastic broodmare sire.

“She’s got valuable black type, and I own her dam and her dam’s full sister, so I have two Galileo mares who are full sisters and in turn, both are sisters to Rip Van Winkle. It’s a proper family.” Susan B Anthony is a full sister to triple Group 1 winner Rip Van Winkle (Ire) who stood at stud in New Zealand, and to winning mare A Star Is Born (Ire), the dam of Listed winner Fleet Review (USA) (War Front {USA}). She’s also a half-sister to G3 Premio del Piazzale winner Le Vie Infinite (Ire) (Le Vie Dei Colori {GB}).

Ethereal Stakes pathway for Spicy Lu

In the last twenty years, nine Oaks winners didn’t come through the G2 Wakeful. Two of those, Pinot (Pierro) and Set Square (Reset) both won the G3 Ethereal Stakes at their start prior to winning the Oaks.

This year, Spicy Lu (Tagaloa) won the G3 Ethereal heading into the Oaks. “She's magnificent. I’m really happy with her. I don't think she could be any better,” said trainer Nick Olive.

“She's not an overly big filly, there’s not much of her. She’s a good doer but she’s not a big strong filly. We did nominate for the Wakeful but we didn't accept. We just thought that the Oaks has been her grand final all along and there was more negatives that could come out running in the Wakeful than positives so that's why we bypassed that and just went to tomorrow.

“She's absolutely thriving and that's how I want her going into the race. I reckon if she ran out the Wakeful she'd come through it well but she wouldn't be in as good a nick as she is now.” The G2 Wakeful Stakes ran on November 1, which makes it a quick back up into the Oaks, while the G3 Ethereal Stakes ran on October 18, 19 days prior to the Oaks.

Spicy Lu’s second season sire Tagaloa won the G1 Blue Diamond but he has a Japanese pedigree so it is not unexpected that he could sire some stamina. “There is some nice horses in the female side that have got over ground too so hoping they come through,” said Olive.

Spicy Lu is out of Charge Forward mare All Salsa who in turn is out of mile winner Ashmal (USA) (Machiavellian {USA}) who descends from five-time Group 1 winner Salsabil (GB) (Sadler’s Wells {USA}) who won the G1 Irish Derby and G1 Epsom Oaks.

Waller’s first Oaks runner

Chris Waller has never had a runner in the G1 Victoria Oaks, and this changes on Thursday with The Pearls (NZ) (Proisir) who will attempt to emulate She’s Extreme (Extreme Choice) with both coming into the race off a last start third placing in the G1 Spring Champion Stakes.

“It's a race we've never targeted or been worried about,” Waller told racenet.com.au on Wednesday.

“It's very early but this filly, she's pretty tough … had she disappointed us in the Gloaming (second), she would've spelled. Had she disappointed us in the Spring Champion (third), she would've spelled, had she disappointed us when she travelled down (to Melbourne), she would've spelled.

“She hasn't, she's never let us down and she's enjoying it. When she parades on Thursday you'll see a big strong filly.”

She’s Extreme was an outstanding 2-year-old, winning the G3 Magic Night Stakes and the G1 Champagne Stakes as well as running second in the G1 Sires’ Produce Stakes and G2 Sweet Embrace Stakes.

She had four runs leading into the Oaks as spring 3-year-old, third in the G2 Furious Stakes, sixth in the G1 Golden Rose, second in the G1 Flight Stakes, and third in the G1 Spring Champion Stakes.

The Pearls has taken a slightly less illustrious pathway. She ran second on debut as a May juvenile before one more start at that age. This spring, she had three starts in maiden company for a third, fourth, and a win, before running second in the G3 Gloaming Stakes and third in the G1 Spring Champion Stakes.

The maiden who surprised everyone

Lasqueti Spirit (Beneteau) came into the G1 Victoria Oaks as a nine-start maiden and won in spectacular front running style. Andrew Bobbins at Grampians Racing will attempt to achieve the same with Janey Bopper (Finn McCool {Ire}) who ran third last start and comes into the race as a three-start maiden.

“She doesn’t have the CV of the other horses we are competing against, but it’s a good story. Her dam, Jane’s Angel was my first runner, and Harry Coffey rode her to be my first winner.” Coffey rides Janey Bopper on Thursday, which would be a nice full circle story for Bobbin’s first Group 1 winner.

And if Tuesday’s G1 Melbourne Cup by Half Yours tells us anything, it’s that sometimes the obvious commercial pedigrees can be beaten by the progeny of an uncommercial Group 3 winner who has only 67 live foals.

Janey Bopper’s sire, Finn McCool (Ire) is a son of Galileo (Ire) who has 33 live foals with his oldest being born in 2021. He has eleven 3-year-olds and his biggest crop are his 2-year-olds which number 13.

“Finn McCool was imported here and didn’t perform. Two of my business partners, Dominic Kerr and Rohan McDonald bought him online and won a couple of country cups with him. Since he was still an entire, they bought some mares online to send to him. To be honest, most of them were probably bought at midnight after a day at the races,” Bobbins said.

Finn McCool won his maiden as a 2-year-old over a mile in Ireland and was twice stakes placed there at three including third in the G3 Gallinute Stakes. In Australia, he knocked around a few trainers, winning the Avoca Cup and Penshurst Cup, retiring after 43 starts. To date his four named foals have all raced but none have won yet.

“We’ve certainly taken the back door into the Oaks. I doubt there are many Oaks winners who ran in a high weight seven days prior. In all her starts she has hit the line well, so she will certainly stay but will she stay fast enough?”

That particular question will be tested on Thursday. “She’s a stayer in the making, maybe not at that level but she isn’t earning any prizemoney standing in the box at home. She has to finish eighth to pay her way.

“The boys have put plenty of time and a lot of money into the industry and to breed a filly worthy of running in the Oaks with their first crop is pretty exciting. They put their heart and soul into everything they do, and I think the festivities will start on the way to the races, even if they don’t get the result, they’ll still be the last one standing at the bar.”

Perhaps the underdog story won’t be the one being told on Thursday, but there would be some poetry if Half Yours and Janey Bopper could both salute for their unsung sires.