Hawkesbury preview for Tuesday: Spirit of Lee and Cherie Curtis’ Oaks winner lives on through daughter

Q: What do you get when you cross a Triple Crown winner with a VRC Oaks winner? A: Laspirit Deeler, whose name is a dead give away for her parentage.

Laspirit Deeler is aiming to notch a second career victory on Tuesday. Picture: Bradley Photos

What do you get when you cross a Triple Crown winner with a VRC Oaks winner?

Answer: Laspirit Deeler, whose name is a dead give away for her parentage.

For the record, the Lee and Cherie Curtis-trained mare is by Dundeel out of Lee Curtis’s famous 200/1 VRC Oaks winner, Lasqueti Spirit – the same Lasqueti Spirit who later finished runner-up to Winx in the race that now bears the great mare’s name.

It took Lasquieti Spirit ten races to win for Curtis and Cook (that’s owners Francis and Christine).

Her daughter, though, took just two to get on the board and can double her tally if successful in Tuesday’s Clarendon Tavern Midway Benchmark 64 Handicap (1800m) at Hawkesbury.

“She is just getting stronger all the time,’’ co-trainer Cherie Curtis said.

“Every run she is getting better.’’

Special win today for the team with Lasqueti Spirit’s daughter winning Race 1 at Wyong over 1600m at her second start.

Laspirit Deeler has inherited her Mum’s stamina & intestinal fortitude.

We are very proud & excited for her future!

Like mother like daughter! pic.twitter.com/CxiOfDAS2T

— Cherie Curtis (@lasquetimeryl) July 20, 2024

• ‘Very happy with her’: Sunshine In Paris, Manaal, Semana star at Warwick Farm trials

Laspirit Deeler followed on from her narrow but determined win at Wyong over the mile with a closing fifth at Newcastle at 1850m.

“The rail was out 10 metres and that was just way too far out for her, getting back to last, she just didn’t have any hope really,’’ Curtis explained.

“We really want to step her up over further but there was nothing in the next week or so that we able to run her in and increase the distance.

“There is an option this weekend,,’’ says Curtis. “A Benchmark 78 over 2400m on Saturday but if you put a horse like her who is only starting her career in there and she runs a huge race and runs third, she will be lumped with benchmark ratings points and it just comes too soon for them.

“You need to season them.

“She will be running in those races at some point but she is just so new to it and improving all the time you just don’t want to hurry her.’’

Trainers Lee and Cherie Curtis with their former champ Lasqueti Spirit. Picture: Brett Costello

• RICHARD CALLANDER: Gillon McLachlan wastes no time reinventing Tabcorp

Francis and Christine Cook’s ubiquitous Mystery Down colours will be worn earlier in the day by Tears For Fears who was scratched from Nowra on Monday.

“She is a horse that generally tends to miss the kick and I don’t really want her being last on that sort of track and getting herself into some bother so I just thought drawing barrier one on Tuesday was a better option,’’ Curtis explained.

“She is a funny horse.

“If she can jump cleanly, she puts herself in the race, but she just has this habit of losing focus at the start and it has been costing her races.

“We have been proactive in trying to get her to jump better.’’

The Curtis’s remaining runner on the Hawkesbury card is Still Alice, a sibling to the camp’s former crack juvenile Meryl.

“She is excellent, she’s going very well,’’ Curtis reported.

“She is a mare that we have always thought was well-above average and I think she will get stronger next prep.

“She will go to city company, where she goes following that I am not sure but at home she shows in her times and stuff that she is a stakes quality mare, it is just getting it out of her.’’

• MITCH COHEN’S BLACKBOOK: Horses to follow, forgive from Randwick

■ ■ ■ ■ ■

Leemon excited about blueblood’s debut

Trainer Ron Leemon with his Golden Rose winner Manawanui. Picture: Brett Costello

Golden Rose-winning trainer Ron Leemon is both eager and excited to see what blue-blooded gelding All Gucci can produce when he makes his long-awaited debut in Tuesday’s Irresistible Pool’s & Spas Maiden Plate (1300m) at Hawkesbury.

A $60,000 Melbourne Premier Yearling sale graduate and son of Melbourne Cup winner Fiorente, All Gucci turned four at the start of August, following hot on the heels of his two trials at home at Warwick Farm.

“I was quite happy with the trials because he’s been a bit immature,’’ Leemon said.

“You have got to give them time and he’s growing into a nice big horse.

“He weighs 540 kgs now and I’ve had him in work for six or seventh months.

“The whole problem was I had to get his weight off him and we had to do a few different things.

“He was on a water-walker for six weeks to try and get his weight down.

“We have put a lot of time and effort in and the owners have stuck by me.’’

• James McDonald to Kick Everest winner into gear

All Gucci gets his chance for a debut win given the spacious surrounds of Hawkesbury and the fact that he has 1300m to find his feet and hit his top speed.

“To me, even though he is not a sprinter, he ran a nice half-mile trial and on his pedigree you would think he is going to get over ground so I think the 1300m is far better than a 1000m or an 1100m race,’’ Leemon said.

“Whatever he does on Tuesday, he will definitely improve on.’’

All Gucci boast an international pedigree; his third dam is a sister to Devil’s Bag as well as Glorious Song, a Grade One winner herself and mother of the great Singspiel.

All Gucci will have company on the float and in the tie-up stalls on Tuesday from his stablemate Dapper Dancer who will start from the outside alley in the Pioneer Services Class 1 Handicap (1100m).

The upside is that the gelding’s only win so far was at the same track and distance as his scheduled Tuesday mission.

“He is probably not living up to what he shows but he has been unlucky,’’ Leemon said.

“Things didn’t go right last prep and his prep this time hasn’t been that bad except for the Wyong one but he bolted to the barrier and he ran his race before the race.’’

“The horse goes alright and when things do go his way go his way, then he produces.’’

Originally published as Hawkesbury preview for Tuesday: Spirit of Lee and Cherie Curtis’ Oaks winner lives on through daughter