Gr 1 target for Savabeel mare

 

Progressive Savabeel mare Lady Kipling may have earned herself a shot at a prestige race after a runaway victory at Pukekohe yesterday. The four-year-old was given a perfect run by Lisa Allpress and strode clear to post her first success at open class level.

Trained at Cambridge by Murray Baker, the four-year-old could now head south again for the Gr 1 Captain Cook Stakes on December 3. That would be her second visit to Trentham after a crack at the Gr 3 Thompson Handicap last month was foiled by rain. “She won through the grades on heavy tracks but she didn’t handle it all,” stable representative Andrew Forsman said. “She’s a smart horse but needs good ground.”

Lady Kipling showed that at Counties where she cam off a handy sit to take charge 400 metres from home and scooted clear over the closing stages to score by four and a-quarter lengths. “We had to ride her a bit upside down and were worried it would be a tactical affair and she was a bit flat-footed at the top of the straight but got the job done really well,” Forsman said.

A half-sister to the stakes performer Lady Chapel, Lady Kipling is a daughter of the Al Akbar mare Akela who won six races and finished runner-up in the Gr 3 Fayette Park Stakes. She is a grand-daughter of the former top racemare and Gr 3 Eulogy Stakes winner Sylvaner.