This Saturday in Melbourne the Godolphin-raced filly Alizee will be out to emulate Global Glamour from last spring and back-up from her Flight Stakes win in Sydney with success in the 2017 Thousand Guineas.
Flight Stakes winner Alizee is hot favourite in Thousand Guineas 2017 betting for this weekend at Caulfield Racecourse. Photo: Steve Hart.
Last season the Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott-trained Global Glamour did the interstate Group 1 mile double for fillies, a feat the James Cummings-trained Alizee is out to repeat in 2017.
The well-bred daughter of Sepoy has won three of her eight starts so far leading into the Group 1 $500,000 Schweppes Thousand Guineas (1600m) on Ladbrokes Caulfield Guineas Day.
She has been up since early August and from her five runs as a three-year-old, boasts a trio of wins.
Two back she won the Group 2 Tea Rose Stakes (1400m) at Randwick and returned to the track on September 30 stepping-up in distance for the Group 1 Flight Stakes (1600m).
Alizee was ultra-impressive in her elite level Epsom Handicap Day assignment charging home for a two and a quarter-length win over Champagne Cuddles.
Now she heads south making her Melbourne debut in the Thousand Guineas field, hoping to show she is as dominant on her other leg.
Godolphin are after their first Thousand Guineas win since the success of the then Peter Snowden-trained Guelph (2013) when operating under the Darley banner.
She too completed the Flight Stakes – Thousand Guineas double in another positive form line for Alizee this weekend.
“She is very similar to Guelph in a lot of ways but has just taken a little more time to come to hand,” Godolphin’s racing manager Jason Walsh told the Brisbane Times this week.
“Her Flight Stakes win was the first time we have seen what she can really do and she has been great since.
“It has been a long time since we had a filly as good as her and she is only just putting it together. This will be another opportunity for her, which we were not expecting.”
After the dominant Group 1 win in Sydney, Alizee leads the pre-field Thousand Guineas odds at Ladbrokes.com.au paying a short $2.50 for the win.
The dangers shape-up as Shoals ($4.80) and Booker ($6.50) who come off the traditional lead-up at the Caulfield track a fortnight back in the Group 2 Thousand Guineas Prelude (1400m).
The Anthony Freedman-trained Shoals won her opening four career starts including a Randwick Group 2 in the wet during the autumn before finishing runner-up in the Prelude.
Written Tycoon filly Booker had just a quarter-length to spare on the line for her win, which followed a third behind Catchy in the Group 2 Danehill Stakes (1200m) down the Flemington straight on September 16.
Winner of the Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes as a two-year-old, Catchy finished third in the Thousand Guineas Prelude but this weekend takes on the boys in the Group 1 $2 million Ladbrokes Caulfield Guineas (1600m).
The Thousand Guineas 2017 Final Field & Barriers are set for release on Tuesday morning, so head to Ladbrokes.com.au now for the best early markets on the hopeful fillies.
