Velocious chasing Black Type in Brisbane

[Chief Stipe]

In-form filly on black-type trail in Brisbane

loveracing.nz

Velocious will bid to add Australian black type to her impressive domestic record when she steps out at Eagle Farm on Saturday.

The Stephen Marsh-trained daughter of Written Tycoon will run in the Listed Queensland Day Stakes (1200m) with multiple Group One-winning jockey Ethan Brown to don the Go Racing silks aboard the three-year-old.

She won’t be the only feature race contender on the card for the syndication company, with the John O’Shea and Tom Charlton-prepared Maison Louis to take aim at the Gr.1 Queensland Derby (2400m).

Velocious earned her passage across the Tasman with her most recent success over 1100m.

“We’ve always had Australia in the back of our minds for her and she had a couple of unlucky runs before her last start at Te Rapa,” Go Racing General Manager Matt Allnutt said.

“That was the race that was going to decide whether she went over or not.

“She duly went out and won that and there’s not much left for her in New Zealand, especially with the way the tracks are, so we’re trying our luck in Queensland.”

Saturday’s performance will determine the length of Velocious’ stay in Australia.

“If she came out and won, there are other races for her coming up and we would like to think she’s going to run very well,” Allnutt said.

“Then we can push on and reassess targets, basically it’s an open-ended ticket at this stage.”

Velocious has six victories from her 12 starts, including the Gr.1 Systema Stakes (1200m) and Listed Karaka Millions (1200m) to earn champion juvenile honours before underwent a wind operation earlier this season.

She has returned to win twice, both noteworthy efforts against older open grade opposition, and in between times had little luck when out of the frame in the Gr.3 Cambridge Breeders’ Stakes (1200m) and in an age group event at Ellerslie.

“Thankfully, Michael McNab got her out of the gates well last start and got the job done for us,” Allnutt said.

Bred by Inglewood Stud, Velocious was a $190,000 Karaka purchase for Go Racing who also purchased her younger half-sister by Dundeel for $300,000.

Also trained by Marsh, Alacritous suffered an interrupted passage when unplaced on debut before she beat Cream Tart, a runaway winner on Monday, at Matamata.

“She went away for a spell after that and is a different type being by Dundeel,” Allnutt said.

“We’ve taken our time with her and she’ll come back into work shortly and be prepared for the 1000 Guineas (Gr.1, 1600m), all going well.”

Meanwhile, Go Racing’s Maison Louis has won three of his six starts and finished fourth in the Gr.3 Rough Habit Plate (2000m) at Doomben in his final Derby lead-up. Ben Melham has been booked to ride the son of Super Seth on Saturday.

[Doomed]

Lets hope she goes well. It has been a terrible year for NZ trained horses in Australia. From memory all I can recall is Savaglee second in a Group 1, Alabama Lass impressive in a listed race and I think one of Roger James' won a Melbourne Cup lead up. I'm sure I must have missed at least one.

With our increased stakes perhaps there is less incentive for handy types to head overseas, and those that do haven't really proved up to it, other than the three mentioned above. It must eventually put pressure on our group system when the form isn't being franked in tougher precincts.

[Chief Stipe]

14 minutes ago, Doomed said:

Lets hope she goes well. It has been a terrible year for NZ trained horses in Australia.

I hope Velocious goes well too for a number of reasons.  But it is a 20 horse field, she has drawn 8 and I've seen her fall apart if she gets boxed in and/or doesn't get her own way.  Lately they have been dropping her out and have a late run at them.  

[Chief Stipe]

1 hour ago, Doomed said:

From memory all I can recall is Savaglee second in a Group 1, Alabama Lass impressive in a listed race and I think one of Roger James' won a Melbourne Cup lead up. I'm sure I must have missed at least one.

There's been a couple more than that.  Bellatrix Star has performed well over there at Group level - won the Champagne Stakes G3, Schillaci Stake G2 and an unlucky second to Switzerland in the Coolmore G1.

[Freda]

1 hour ago, Chief Stipe said:

There's been a couple more than that.  Bellatrix Star has performed well over there at Group level - won the Champagne Stakes G3, Schillaci Stake G2 and an unlucky second to Switzerland in the Coolmore G1.

NZ trained?

[Chief Stipe]

4 minutes ago, Freda said:

NZ trained?

Bellatrix Star pre-trained and spelled in NZ.  Trained by Mark Walker.