Australian Oaks: Colette captures first Group 1 in awesome show
It has been nothing short of remarkable Colette’s sudden ascendancy through the grades, culminating with Group 1 success in the ATC Oaks, but one question remains. Where is her ceiling?
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She only won a Class 1 at Newcastle in February but Colette was a Group 1 winner three runs later when taking out the ATC Oaks (2400m) at Randwick on Saturday for Godolphin.
The Hallowed Crown filly was in a league of her own as she sprinted much better than her opposition to defeat the game Toffee Tongue.
Trainer James Cummings, who trained Hallowed Crown, said his daughter certainly lifted her father’s sire status after winning with ease by 2 ½ lengths.
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“She’s a special filly for us, she’s from the first season of Hallowed Crown which is a big result for us. She is a Classic filly out of his first crop,” he said.
“A shout out to Gooree Park Stud who bred him and if he can keep getting fillies like her and three-year-olds like her, he’s certainly going to be an interesting one to follow.
“She’s from a really good Northern Hemisphere family out of Singspiel mare and she just lapped up the staying journey today, we owed Bossy won after winning the Newmarket for us about a month ago.”
Cummings a feeling some time ago that he had something above average to work with.
“She’s a beauty. A few runs ago someone asked me it must be a pretty good horse if you are sending Darren Beadman all the way to Newcastle to saddle her up in a maiden on a Saturday and I think they were on the money there,” he said.
One punter was so confident in the $2.90 favourite’s chances they plonked a cool $20,000 on her to win and Glen Boss played his role.
The champion hoop rode her perfectly the whole way and didn’t worry about much that was going on around her knowing he had the best sprint in the race.
“They walked for the first 1000m but that didn’t bother me as I know she has more turn of speed than most of them,” he said.
“So the slower they went the better for me so I was quite happy just to sit there. When one (Stick ‘Em Up) took over at the 1400m and rolled along that made it a nice tempo for her. That was pretty simple. Made it easy for me, just point and shoot stuff really.”
Colette come into the race off a 2000m Adrian Knox win and even though it’s a traditional lead-up race he said it put her in good stead for the Oaks due to the conditions on hand.
“I think it’s been a bit of a trend this autumn, those horses that have had a run on the heavy track and are backing up, it’s very beneficial this autumn because it’s been trying conditions,” Boss said
Second favourite Probabeel was never in the race from the back part of the field and the best she could manage was eighth while Shout The Bar was simply outstayed.
Chris Waller, trainer of Toffee Tongue, said his filly was still a top staying prospect to keep an eye on.
“Normally, I would be looking to send a filly like her to Queensland for the Oaks but with that race not being run this year, we will give consideration to running her in Adelaide,” he said.
‘We could go to either the Schweppes Oaks (2000m) in three weeks or the South Australian Derby (2500m) in a month’s time.
“Nudge ran fourth but didn’t quite stay the trip. We may also consider the Schweppes Oaks for her.’’