A stakes winner resuming and a race-fit filly will spearhead Tulloch Lodge’s Silver Shadow Stakes team as Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott prepare to gang tackle the race.
The training partners will saddle-up five of the 15 runners and it is Gimcrack Stakes winner Platinum Jubilee and the unbeaten Taormina who shape as their leading hopes.
Platinum Jubilee proved her mettle at two, not only winning the first juvenile race of the season but finishing runner-up in the Magic Millions Classic and Silver Slipper before coming to the end of her campaign when unplaced in the Golden Slipper.
Bott has liked what he’s seen from her at the trials and on the training track at home and says she has the form on the board.
“It’s hard to say what’s the pick of them, but she, out of all of them, is the one that has been proven at that level all the way through,” Bott said.
“She’s back in great shape and looks really well.”
With nine fillies resuming in Saturday’s 1200m feature, Taormina will have the advantage of recent racing, just as Waterhouse and Bott had planned.
She earned her shot at stakes company following wins at Warwick Farm and Rosehill and her fitness edge could prove crucial, particularly on a rain-affected track.
“She had some strong runs through winter company and she’s got to take that next step into this sort of grade,” Bott said.
“But I’m hoping her fitness can offset that. She’s got a nice racing pattern, on-pace, so if she can use that to her advantage, that has been the aim with her to line up here.”
Black Opal Stakes winner Autumn Ballet, the lightly-raced Amazonian Lass and perennial placegetter Summer Loving round out the team.
Autumn Ballet and Amazonian Lass are both on a Flight Stakes path with Bott expecting them to improve as they step up in journey.
Summer Loving remains a maiden but placed in the Golden Gift and the Magic Millions Wyong and Gold Coast Classics at two, before resuming with another placing behind stablemate Coincide earlier this month.
Bott was encouraged by her return but says her get-back racing pattern is frustrating.
“She was very good first-up, just the (outside) barrier, from that start there she went further back than anticipated and gave herself too much to do,” he said.
“But she has found a couple of excuses all the way through and run that similar style of race.”
While the quintet will clash in the Silver Shadow Stakes, they won’t all remain on a spring collision course.
Some will go through the Princess Series but others, like Platinum Jubilee, could divert towards the Golden Rose if good enough.
“One or two of them could. Platinum Jubilee is probably the obvious one because she has raced at that class throughout her two-year-old campaign, and she’s got that speed and quality about her,” Bott said.
“A few of the other fillies are going to be (better suited) to the Princess Series and are more staying types of fillies who will appreciate the mile and a bit further …. they’re all deserving to be there, it’s a good race to see where they’re at, how they measure up and what paths they can take.”