Memsie Stakes (Group 1)
STAR filly Treasurethe Moment returned to the track for her first start since winning the Australian Oaks at Randwick in April, tearing apart the Group 1 Memsie Stakes at Caulfield to win by nearly three lengths improving her record to nine wins in a row, her last three at Group 1. The Alabama Express four-year-old has now started 12 times for 10 wins and two seconds with earnings just beyond A$3 million.
“That’s one of the best Memsie fields we’ve seen in some time. I wasn’t expecting to be coming here and winning, but she had come up very well and to win in such fashion, is pretty incredible,” said trainer Matt Laurie.
“There was good pace. She was able to ease across the speed. You just knew coming to the turn, if she got the breaks, that she would burst through. I have never seen a horse travel that well around the bend and quicken up like she did. It was fantastic to watch, to come back from winning two Oaks and come back against a field like this over seven furlongs, it’s mind blowing, what else is she going to do?”
Mid-field in the early part of the race, jockey Damian Lane let the handbrake off at the top of the straight as Treasurethe Moment eagerly took the gap between the leader Pinstripped and Mr Brightside. The Bullbars gelding Mr Brightside ran on well for second as the Fastnet Rock gelding Buckaroo claimed third.
“She was great,” said Damian Lane. “She’s come back in really good order. You’re never really sure. Trackwork, jump-outs, they’re a different kind of pressure, but she’s jumping up to the big boys and girls now. We were hoping what we were seeing in her trackwork and trials would translate into today and it did.”
Next on the cards for Treasurethe Moment is the Makybe Diva Stakes over 1,600 metres at Flemington and possibly the Turnbull Stakes before a decision will need to be made regarding the 2,400 metres of the Caulfield Cup or the 2,050 metres of the Cox Plate.
Complicating matters is that Treasurethe Moment’s owner Yulong also own the current Cox Plate favourite Via Sistina, a point not lost on her trainer. “That’s a discussion to have with the connections, they’ve obviously got a lot of high-class horses and obviously don’t want to meet. On that run, 2,000 metres at The Valley, she’d have to be some chance.”
TOM Sherry got the victory in the Group 3 Up And Coming Stakes at Rosehill on Saturday aboard Grand Prairie but put his spring in jeopardy by sustaining a lengthy suspension that concludes on October 8th. Involved in a fall that saw Dylan Gibbons dislodged at the 250-metre mark and his horse Tyreek having to be euthanised, stewards charged Sherry with careless riding. As Sherry began a separate ban on Sunday, he won’t start his second suspension until September 7th.
Second at his previous start, his first in a blacktype race, Grand Prairie charged on well to the line to take the win having overhauled the Coolmore-owned Zoustar colt Fermoy, with the Time To Reign gelding Crown The King third. “Naturally if he ran well today I would think about the (Group 1) Golden Rose for him but I just need to see how he’s pulled up and see how things are,” said trainer Peter Snowden of the Written Tycoon colt.
“He’s done a good job and he deserved a nice race. I’m glad he’s won, it was just unfortunate with the incident today. He is very genuine and he ran the 1,300 right out today which was good to see.”
PETER Snowden completed a Group 3 double at Rosehill on Saturday following the win of the Cosmic Force gelding Raging Force in the San Domenico Stakes over 1,100 metres to complete four consecutive wins from five career starts.
“Raging Force and Grand Prairie could both go to the Golden Rose (September 27th),” said Snowden.
“My plan is to run Raging Force next in the Run To The Rose and Grand Prairie will go to the Ming Dynasty. What I was happy about was how strong late both horses were today and I know there is improvement to come from Raging Force. He’s the real deal.”
Strong in the run home, Raging Force, with Tommy Berry up, won by a length and a half over the Coolmore-owned Golden Slipper runner-up Wodeton. However, the Wootton Bassett colt was checked by the winner at the 100-metre mark whose jockey James McDonald, based on the margin, chose not to protest. “He has gone enormous, the horse,” said McDonald of Wodeton.
“If he didn’t have a check he would have probably gone close.”
As a consequence Tommy Berry pleaded guilty to a careless riding charge and was suspended for six meetings, concluding on September 20th. Third was the Bivouac colt Beiwacht.