A host of Crown Oaks-bound fillies are nominated to face off in the Moonee Valley Fillies Classic 2015 this Saturday on Cox Plate Day as the action of the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival continues.
Crown Oaks-bound Don’t Doubt Mamma is one of the headline nominees for Saturday’s 2015 Moonee Valley Fillies Classic. Photo: Ultimate Racing Photos.
Nominations for this year’s $200,000 Group 2 Alliance Broking Services Fillies Classic (1600m) are extended until 10am (AEST) on Tuesday morning with 14 three-year-old fillies making up the original entries for the set weights clash.
Many are also nominated for the Melbourne Cup Carnival’s $1 million Group 1 Crown Oaks (2500m) at Flemington Racecourse on Thursday November 5.
The shortest-priced Fillies Classic nominee in the futures Crown Oaks odds at Ladbrokes.com.au, who are offering an exclusive Best Tote or SP + 20% on the full Moonee Valley card this weekend, is the Gai Waterhouse-trained Sydney raider Sempre Libera.
The Medaglia D’Oro filly has won just one of his six starts to date, but is down in class this weekend on the back of an eighth when beaten just under three lengths by stablemate Speak Fondly in the Group 1 Flight Stakes (1600m) at Randwick at the start of the month.
She is yet to race in Melbourne, but she is at $17 in all-in Crown Oaks odds and is tipped to enjoy the opposite way of racing this weekend now she’s had a run over the mile.
Waterhouse also has Harlem River nominated for the Moonee Valley Fillies Classic on the weekend, the consistent daughter of Fastnet Rock yet to finish out of the money in her four runs to date.
She is a black-type winner in Queensland over 1400m from the winter and comes off a first-up third to Serene Majesty at Caulfield in the Group 3 Thoroughbred Club Stakes (1200m) from October 10.
The next best fancied Crown Oaks hopes who could run in Saturday’s Moonee Valley lead-up are Don’t Doubt Mamma ($21) and Thames Court ($26).
Tony McEvoy prepares his daughter of Not A Single Doubt Don’t Doubt Mamma from an Adelaide base, but her three most recent runs have all been in Melbourne.
She won over 1400m two back at Melbourne on the back of a fourth to subsequent Group 1 Thousand Guineas winner Stay With Me over 1200m at Moonee Valley.
Last time out she was sixth in the Group 2 Edward Manifold Stakes (1600m) at Flemington, a run she can improve on with form over the distance now.
Thames Court is trained by Mornington’s David Brideoake and is another Edward Manifold graduate, the Commands filly running fifth in the race as a 21/1 outsider in just her third career run and first black-type assignment.
Other fillies coming into the Moonee Valley showdown on nice lead-up runs include the John O’Shea-trained Italy who was runner-up over 1400m at Caulfield on Cup Day, third in that same race last Saturday Silent Sedition and Robert Smerdon’s Edward Manifold Stakes third-placed Snippetson filly My Poppette.
See below for the current Moonee Valley Fillies Classic 2015 nominations, the final field and barriers due for release on Wednesday when Ladbrokes.com.au will open betting on the entire race card!
2015 Moonee Valley Fillies Classic Nominations
Moonee Valley Racecourse – 24/10/2015
| # | Form (Last 10) | Horse | Sex | Age | Trainer | Hcp. Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4624×27184 | AIR APPARENT | F | 3 | David Hayes & Tom Dabernig | – |
| 2 | 6x314x0 | BENGAL CAT | F | 3 | John Sadler | 67 |
| 3 | 53x58x32 | DAGNY (NZ) | F | 3 | Sam Pritchard-Gordon | 60 |
| 4 | 413×3416 | DON’T DOUBT MAMMA | F | 3 | Tony McEvoy | 72 |
| 5 | 221×3 | HARLEM RIVER | F | 3 | Gai Waterhouse | 72 |
| 6 | 4x7x146 | HELL OR HIGHWATER | F | 3 | David Hayes & Tom Dabernig | – |
| 7 | x1539x5482 | ITALY | F | 3 | John O’Shea | 72 |
| 8 | 121×473 | MY POPPETTE | F | 3 | Robert Smerdon | 72 |
| 9 | 5×3 | QUILATE | F | 3 | Michael Kent | 61 |
| 10 | 8x220x168 | REEMAH | F | 3 | David Hayes & Tom Dabernig | – |
| 11 | 12111×54 | SEEKING ASYLUM | F | 3 | Gary Portelli | 72 |
| 12 | 2145×48 | SEMPRE LIBERA | F | 3 | Gai Waterhouse | 80 |
| 13 | 323 | SILENT SEDITION | F | 3 | Andrew Noblet | 65 |
| 14 | 135 | THAMES COURT | F | 3 | David Brideoake | 65 |
