Lucia Valentina on target

20 March 2015

Improvement is expected from the New Zealand-bred and owned mare Lucia Valentina in Saturday’s $A500,000 Gr.1 Ranvet Stakes at Rosehill.

The dual Group One winner was a strong first-up fourth for trainer Kris Lees in the Gr.2 Apollo Stakes before finishing midfield in the Gr.1 Chipping Norton Stakes last time out.

“She has come on a lot and hopefully she’s over the second-up blues,” said Bruce Perry, who manages owner Lib Petagna’s bloodstock interests. “I know Kris is pretty excited about her.”

Petagna is also a part-owner of the Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman-trained Maygrove, who will continue his build-up toward the Sydney Cup in the $A150,000 Gr.3 Mannion Cup. He was an encouraging fourth in his Australian debut.

“His last run was really good and he ran a pretty quick last 400,” Perry said. “There’s a lot of improvement in him,” Perry said.

The Corner with Garry Chittick

I keep on proposing my retirement from the burden of a weekly Corner. I make the excuse it is hard to be credible, hard to let the two of you know about anything in our sport that hasn’t been covered before.

27 October 2025

WS-bred On The Lash scores at Sha Tin

Twenty-four hours following the final WS Cox Plate meeting run on the Moonee Valley track of old before it shuts for two years to make way for a new precinct, the race’s 2004 winner, Savabeel, continued his roll of runners, and this time it was via five-year-old On The Lash (ex Candelabra) at Sha Tin.