Filly takes winning step to Oaks

Whistling Dixie’s three-year-old season gained some serious momentum at Awapuni yesterday afternoon with her victory in the Gr 3 Eulogy Stakes. The WS-bred and sold daughter of Pins is trained by Graeme and Debbie Rogerson, who have a Group One plan for the filly.

“I ride her every morning so she’s a favourite and we think she’s going to be an Oaks filly,” successful rider Aimee Taylor said. A $30,000 Select Sale purchase in 2012, the three-year-old has the right pedigree as her grandmother Zepherin won the New Zealand Oaks at Trentham in 1984.

Taylor posted the biggest win of her career aboard Whistling Dixie and she later revealed she had worked on the advice from a great Kiwi jockey. “Jimmy Cassidy went through the form with me on Friday and we wanted to sit third or fourth,” she said. “Jimmy’s out here on holiday at the moment and he said to me if you’re confident you’re half-way there and I was really confident on the turn.”

Completing a great Eulogy Stakes result for WS was the runner-up Miss Selby. She is a daughter of O’Reilly and the Danasinga mare Singing Star who won eight races, including the then Gr 2 Waikato Gold Cup.