The Group 1 Thousand Guineas (1600m) is next on the agenda for the Michael Moroney trained Coeur Volante who remained unbeaten this preparation, taking out the Group 2 Thousand Guineas Prelude (1400m) at Caulfield.
Jumping from the widest barrier, Blake Shinn managed to slot Coeur Volante one out, one back after 200 metres and the filly did the rest, going on to score by one-and-a-quarter lengths to unfavoured runners Vivy Air and Zourion.
This was Coeur Volante’s third win in four starts having only been beaten on debut over 1000m and Moroney was full of praise for Shinn, who also overcame trouble aboard the filly to win first up at Moonee Valley.
“It was another very good ride but she flew the gates and I left it up to Blake, as you do with those good jocks,” Moroney said.
“He said that if she flew the gates she’d be positive and if she didn’t he’d ride her back so she flew the gates and, for a filly that has had very little practice, she did a good job getting across because she had to go again to get there and I thought it was a great effort.”
Moroney has a nice decision to make now, confirming the “special filly” will target the Thousand Guineas on its new day at the back end of the Spring.
“The decision we’ve got to make now is if we give her a run ten days before on Melbourne Cup Day or whether we go straight into it,” Moroney said.
That race would be the Listed Desirable Stakes (1400m) at Flemington, a set weights and penalties contest for three-year-old fillies.
Shinn praised the Proisir filly’s adaptability and toughness, which should her in good stead going towards the Thousand Guineas.
“That was really not my plan to do what we did but we called it as we jumped and she jumped probably half-a-length in front of the rest,” Shinn said.
“These good horses, when they’re really good you can make a couple of runs on them and it was a great quality for her to display that today and I wasn’t sure that she had that in her armoury but it is great that going forward we can ride her in a pattern like that going forward if necessary.”