Yankee Rose fails to flatter in Sunshine Coast barrier trial, but trainer David Vandyke’s not concerned

TRAINER David Vandyke has likened his Group 1 winner Yankee Rose to a Queensland State of Origin player.

Yankee Rose could target the Cox Plate in the spring. Picture: Jenny Evans

TRAINER David Vandyke has likened his Group 1 winner Yankee Rose to a Queensland State of Origin player.

The star filly was unimpressive in her Sunshine Coast trial on Tuesday but Vandyke says she only ever produces her best in the heat of competition on race day.

“She is a bit like the Queensland State of Origin players, they go to another level in supreme competition and I know that she will do the same,” Vandyke told The Courier-Mail.

“Once she gets to NSW and then onto Victoria and races against the best horses in Australia, she will step up. I have come to expect her to put in an unimpressive performance in her track gallops and her trials.

“She is a bit like Winx — between the two of them they have never won a barrier trial.”

Yankee Rose, who ran second in the Golden Slipper before winning the Group 1 ATC Sires Produce Stakes earlier this year, will embark on an elite campaign which could culminate in the Cox Plate.

Former Sydney trainer Vandyke, who relocated to Queensland this year, says Zac Purton will again link up with Yankee Rose if the filly returns in the Group 1 Golden Rose at Rosehill on September 10.

Blake Shinn would get the ride in the Group 1 Flight Stakes at Randwick on October 1 and then a decision would be made on whether Yankee Rose progresses to the Cox Plate.

David Vandyke says Yankee Rose saves her best for raceday. Picture: Lachie Millard

Yankee Rose did not flatter on Tuesday when Michael Cahill rode her in a trial, finishing last in a field of four. Vandyke would have liked to have seen a bit more from her on the track but he was not worried about the elite three-year-old galloper.

“She enjoys being a Queenslander and I think she has blossomed since she has been up here,” Vandyke said. “She will trial again in a few weeks, I don’t want to take her to Sydney too soon as she really enjoys things up here in Queensland. I am a bit like Yankee Rose myself; I am really thriving in the beautiful Queensland environment.”

If Yankee Rose makes it to the weight-for-age Cox Plate at Moonee Valley on October 22, she will carry 47.5kg. Vandyke indicated lightweight Victorian jockeys Dean Yendall and Dean Holland could be the ones in contention for a potential Cox Plate mission on Yankee Rose.

Vandyke said Yankee Rose would probably be his sole Spring Carnival campaigner, with some other good stable prospects not quite ready to go to battle at the highest level.

Originally published as Yankee Rose fails to flatter in Sunshine Coast barrier trial, but trainer David Vandyke’s not concerned