Chris Waller filly Lady Shenandoah breaks her maiden with an impressive victory in the Group 3 Ming Dynasty at Rosehill

A shot at the Group 1 Flight Stakes is now on the cards for Lady Shenandoah after her superb performance to break her maiden in the Group 3 Ming Dynasty Quality at Rosehill.

Lady Shenandoah (right) storms home to beat Mayfair (left), Snack Bar (blue) and Just Party (pink) in the Ming Dynasty at Rosehill. Picture: Getty Images

Emerging filly Lady Shenandoah looks set for a Group 1 showdown with boom stablemate Autumn Glow following her terrific return at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday.

The smart daughter of Snitzel picked a big occasion to break her maiden with a determined first up effort to score in the Group 3 $250,000 Ming Dynasty Quality (1400m).

It thrust her into the Group 1 Flight Stakes (1600m) conversation.

Waller, who was in Melbourne to watch Via Sistina in the Makybe Diva Stakes, already has favourite Autumn Glow heading in that direction.

The stable hold Lady Shenandoah in similarly high regard.

“James (McDonald) spoke at the Beanies for Brain Cancer lunch the other day and he tipped Lady Shenandoah to as the filly to watch for the whole season, but he still hasn’t sat on Autumn Glow yet,” assistant trainer Charlie Duckworth said.

“We’ll leave that until next Saturday (Tea Rose Stakes) until we work out who is the benchmark. But look, she is supremely talented.

“She has probably marginally underperformed for what we expected in her two runs last preparation, purely down to racing on a soft six and heavy eight tracks.”

Autumn Glow is a $2.30 favourite for the Flight Stakes after starting her career with a pair of victories, including in the Group 3 Up And Coming Stakes.

She will take the next step towards the Flight Stakes when she contests next Saturday’s Group 2 Tea Rose Stakes (1400m).

Lady Shenandoah was shortened from $11 into $8 for the Group 1.

In the past, Waller would have had the option to split his fillies between Sydney and Melbourne however moving the Thousand Guineas until later in the carnival has taken that off the table.

“Initially, Chris thought, do we try to split them with Hermitage (Thoroughbreds) being involved in both horses, send one for the Thousand Guineas at Caulfield,” Duckworth said.

“But now that’s at the back-end of the season and you’ve just won first-up, the Flight Stakes is only a matter of weeks away.“

Lady Shenandoah’s win gave Waller his fourth win on the card following the successes of Matusalem, Unusual Legacy and Firestorm.

Jockey Jay Ford had Lady Shenandoah perfectly poised to strike, two pairs back from the leaders.

He eased Lady Shenandoah into the race from the top of the straight and the lightly-raced filly stuck to the task over the concluding stages

It's the @cwallerracing show at Rosehill today!

Lady Shenandoah takes the G3 Ming Dynasty with Jay Ford in the saddle! pic.twitter.com/v1gzVVFBd7

— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) September 14, 2024

Lady Shenandoah ($5) edged out the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained Mayfair ($4.80 fav) by a half neck while James Cummings’ Snack Bar ($13) was a long neck away in third.

“She’s high class, the stable gave me a very big push for her,” Ford said.

“They said she’s quite a quality horse and she’d come back well and only had one trial. Straight to a 1400, had a lovely run rounding them up really nicely.”

“She got a little bit tired and wayward nonetheless but she’ll improve with more racing experience.

“She’s well on her way.”

Lady Shenandoah was placed in both of her two-year-old runs, including in Listed company, but appreciated firmer footing in her Sydney return.

“Back on top of the surface today, she is a real talent,” Duckworth said.

“We just said to Jay (Ford), forget about the first half of the race because 1400-metres first-up was obviously going to be a bit of a question mark.”

“But she began so well, Jay had to land in the position he landed in. He was trying to be as soft as he could within the rules of racing, I think, but she had to dig deep in terms of her fitness levels late and there is plenty more to come.

Mayfair was brave on speed and only found one better late.

“He was very tough on speed. Had to give everyone weight and he was very brave,” jockey Tim Clark said.

Snack Bar sat outside the leader throughout and showed a good kick to only narrowly go down.

“We just got grabbed late so maybe if he drew softer it probably would have been closer again.” jockey Kerrin McEvoy said.

Originally published as Chris Waller filly Lady Shenandoah breaks her maiden with an impressive victory in the Group 3 Ming Dynasty at Rosehill