The $3 million TJ Smith Stakes (1200m) on April 4 during Sydney’s ‘The Championships’ could be on the cards for Ciaron Maher‘s outstanding filly Tempted who ticked off the Group 1 box with her 2026 Surround Stakes win for the punters at Randwick on Saturday.

Heavily backed into odds-on favouritism for her second run of the autumn after saluting fresh over the boys in the Group 3 Eskimo Prince Stakes, The Everest runner-up from the spring proved too good for her fellow fillies in a tight but important victory in the Group 1 $750,000 Surround Stakes (1400m).

“Quality, you know, she’s got so much of it,” Maher told Sky Thoroughbred Central after the win.

“I’m just thrilled to be able to train for Godolphin, her record speaks for itself, so to be able to tick off a Group 1 for her is very, very special.”

Ridden by Chad Schofield, the three-year-old daughter of Street Boss continued her excellent Randwick record when showing plenty of fight to mow down the front-running Savvy Hallie and narrowly get the job done for the favourite backers.

“Chad (Schofield), he knew what he had underneath him,” Maher said.

“I was actually thinking, ‘come on, you can get a little bit more desperate’ halfway down the straight. But, 1400m is probably right at the top of her distance range, as we’ve seen, she’s ran second and now won at Group 1 level.

“You’d think she’s more dynamic at six (furlongs). Group 1s are everything for these fillies, especially for a team like Godolphin and their Broodmare band. I’m absolutely thrilled.”

Schofield allowed the star, Godolphin-raced filly to settle just off the pace before he came with a sweeping run after cornering, letting rip on the final straight and moving up to the leader in what turned out to be an epic battle down the Randwick straight.

The Brad Widdup-trained Savvy Hallie ($10) didn’t give up without a fight going stride-for-stride with Tempted ($1.60F) before the latter just got her head down by a bob right on the line to get up.

“I probably didn’t expect to be in that position, but there was a lot more pressure early, which I had a feeling might happen,” Schofield said of how the race panned out.

“I didn’t want to engage early and sort of switch her on and get her over-travelling, so I very much just left her alone and rode her to get the trip.

“I came through the top of the rise full of horse, really smooth through her gears, and I had to sort of really dig into her legs. She had to dig deeper. She’s a very good horse.

“We kept finding, but we had to because that second filly was tremendously brave.

“Just the way I canted up to her, but then Savvy Hallie, she found a lot more.

“Very good run by two good fillies, but I think we were the better one on the day.”

In third also running well was Peter Moody & Katherine Coleman‘s Thousand Guineas winner Ole Dancer ($9) who crossed nearly two lengths back having failed to match motors late with the top two.

“She is a pleasure to ride. She probably didn’t break the gates too well,” Zac Lloyd said of Ole Dancer.

“Didn’t want to sit behind Tempted and be dictated too. So let her stride and I thought she was very gallant up the straight.”

Maher is now considering future campaign plans for Tempted with the 2026 TJ Smith Stakes firmly on the radar.

“Well, you know, she’s got options now,” he explained.

“Originally, I thought that (the TJ Smith Stakes) would be the plan, but I’ll sit down with the team and ask them, and we’ll work it through and they’ve managed it well so far.”

Melito (2010) was the last filly to win the TJ Smith.

The all-in price on Tempted to be the next in futures TJ Smith Stakes betting at Ladbrokes.com.au has firmed in from $5 to $4.60.

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