Group I Champagne flows for Pasadena Girl

23 April 2015

NZ RACING DESK: A filly trainer Peter Moody thought was too small to race as a two-year-old has taken out the final leg of Sydney’s juvenile Group One triple crown.

Moody always believed Pasadena Girl (NZ) (Savabeel) would come into her own next season, and her Champagne Stakes win over 1600m at Randwick last Saturday has only reinforced that opinion.

“When I first saw her I expected her to be going to the races this time next year,” Moody said.

“She is a little gem.

“After each start we thought she would be going to the paddock but she has presented bigger and stronger every time even though she is only a pony.

“For a filly that high, we had to put a bottom rail on the stable to keep her in.

“She was like a little puppy dog. She kept sneaking out under the rail.

“But she is heavier today than she was at Flemington six weeks ago.”

Hugh Bowman, who rode The Barrister (Star Witness) to win last week’s Fernhill Handicap, committed to Pasadena Girl after she ran fourth in the ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes won by Pride Of Dubai.

“I didn’t know The Barrister would be running in the Champagne but I thought her run in the Sires’ was the eye-catcher,” Bowman said.

Pasadena Girl will head to Queensland for the spell Moody thought she would need after a winning debut in February.

“She is a Flight Stakes, Thousand Guineas-type of filly and I’d like to think she could go on to the Oaks,” Moody said.

“She has that scope ahead of her and the progeny of Savabeel are showing they can do anything.”

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