A phone call to Australia today (Tuesday) will determine the immediate future of the talented filly Katie’s Cove.
She gave an excellent account of herself when runner-up in Saturday’s Group 3 Hawkesbury Guineas and trainer Roger James now has tentative plans to send the three-year-old to Brisbane.
“I’m going to phone Queensland to see if she has amassed enough money to get into the Queensland Guineas,” the Cambridge trainer said.
“I may look at running her again before that, but I’d prefer not to and would rather have a month between races.”
The $A350,000 Group 2 Queensland Guineas will be run at Eagle Farm on May 31 and the step up to a mile would be ideal for the daughter of Zabeel.
In the hands of Jason Collett, she beat all but the Team Hawkes representative and James McDonald-ridden Chautauqua in Saturday’s Hawkesbury feature over 1400 metres.
“She has come through the race very well and it’s fair to say that if she had stayed on the fence she would have been hard to beat – the winner would then have had to come around her,” James said.
Katie’s Cove placed in all three of her starts in the spring, and was desperately unlucky not to have won the last of them at Ellerslie, before she broke her maiden when resuming at Matamata early last month.
She then confirmed James’ plans to send her to Australia when she thumped the older horses by four lengths at Avondale.
A half-sister to the multiple sprint winner and stakes performer Sitara, Katie’s Cove is from the family of the multiple Group One winner All Our Mob (Stradbroke Handicap, Mackinnon Stakes, All Aged Stakes, Newmarket Handicap).
– NZ Racing Desk
