Racing News, Winter Stakes
Last Stand For Gold Winter
Gold Water will try to close his racing career before she is retired to stud status with a victory at the 1400-metre Group One Winter Stakes at the Eagle Farm racecourse. For the final Group One race of the Australian horse racing season, the Gai Waterhouse-trained four-year-old mare will try to improve on her past Group One finishes.
For her entire career, Gold Water has finished second in three Group One races. She finished the 2009 Storm Queen, the 2010 Coolmore Classic and the 2010 Doomben Cup behind Purple, Alverta and Metal Bender respectively. At the Winter Stakes, Gold Water will be steered by Eduardo Cojuangco. Come spring time, she will join her broodmare band at Gooree Stud.
Gai Waterhouse’s racing manager Mark Webbey said that Gold Water is in great form leading into the Doomben Cup and that she is rejuvenated and better going into the Winter Stakes. Meanwhile, Metal Bender will also compete in the Winter Stakes and he will be jockeyed by Nash Rawiller who is eyeing for his tenth Group One horse race victory of the season.
Rawiller is also the current leader at the Sydney jockey’s premiership race while Corey Brown is on hot pursuit while lodged at second. Brown will also compete at the Winter Stakes aboard Melito. Melito, trained by Gerald Ryan, had a string of impressive performances in recent weeks.
He started the stretch with a Group One win at the TJ Smith Stakes. Then, he had four Group One place finishes including a second place finish to Black Piranha at the Stradbroke Handicap. Ryan believes that his horse has what it takes to win the Winter Stakes and that he has acquired enough finishes to be named the three-year-old filly of the year even if she does not win the Winter Stakes.
However, VRC Oaks winner Faint Perfume is the frontrunner for filly of the year honours. Also, Ryan added that Melito has a great chance of winning the Winter Stakes but he also claims that the group of competitors, most especially Set For Fame and Beaded, are tough to beat.
There will be 20 entries for the Winter Stakes but its maximum number of competitors is 16. Five horses will be listed as emergencies. 2009 Winter Stakes winner Russeting will not compete this year for his motherhood is apparent after her race at Stradbroke. Russeting’s absence leaves trainer Bart Cummings a non-factor in the Winter Stakes.
But with Peter Moody’s Set For Fame listed for the Winter Stakes, the said trainer will have a chance to equal Cumming’s tally of Group One victories this season. Dariana’s victory at the Queensland Derby is Cummings’ seventh Group One victory this season.
Cummings’s other victories were Viewed at the Caulfield Cup, Faint Perfume at the VRC Oaks and Storm Queen, Allez Wonder at the Toorak Handicap, So You Think at the Cox Plate and Rock Classic at the Australian Guineas.
Meanwhile, Moody’s Typhoon Tracy won four Group One races namely the CF Orr Stakes, the Queen of the Turf, the Futurity and the Myer Classic. Also, Headaway claimed the Coolmore Stud Stakes while Wanted dominated the Newmarket Handicap.
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