Best yet to come from Group One filly

17 November 2013

Courageous filly Spellbinder became O’Reilly’s latest Group One performer when she finished third in today’s NZ Bloodstock 1000 Guineas. She sat outside the leader to the turn before being left in front and stuck grimly to her task down the long Riccarton straight.

Trainer Jason Bridgman, who also saddled the winner Costa Viva, was proud of Spellbinder’s performance and said the best was yet to come from the filly. “She was very game and she showed a lot of heart on a track that was a bit too good for her. When you see her up to 2000 metres at Ellerslie at Christmas time she’ll be a special filly.”

Spellbinder was unbeaten in her first two starts, including a Listed victory in the Soliloquy Stakes by a wide margin. She had rounded off her Guineas preparation with a runner-up finish in the Gr 3 Sarten Memorial at Te Rapa.

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.