After winning with his first runner in New Zealand, Yulong Stud’s Lucky Vega (IRE) is off to the perfect start In Australia, with his daughter Within The Law dominant in the $500,000 Listed Inglis Banner (1000m) down the Flemington straight on Champions Day.
With Ben Melham in the saddle for Bjorn Baker, Within The Law tracked down the grandstand side, finishing full of running to defeat the $500,000 I Am Invincible debutant Chisholm by lone and quarter lengths with a further one and a half lengths back to the Hanseatic filly Rohesia, who claimed the $200,000 pink ladies bonus.
“It’s great to come down here and great to win with Darby Racing, Baker said.
“They keep finding good two-year-olds. Of course, they’ve won the Golden Slipper (with She Will Reign) with Ben Melham aboard, so she’s another good two-year-old they’ve found. It’s a big thrill to kick off the day in style.”
“I just thought she had good fitness. She’d had two trials, and she paraded well today, so I had a little confidence in that. It was great to get off to the perfect start in a big race, and big thanks to the sponsors, Inglis.”
Ben Melham said the filly did everything right on debut.
“She’s a nice filly. Obviously, well schooled up in Sydney and made significant improvement from her first trial to her second and was beaten by a smart horse in her second trial, Melham said.
“She is very straightforward and well educated, which certainly takes them a long way. She had a good drop on them, got into a great rhythm and I felt she was always going to win. She just took a bit of persuading to get past the leader, but once she knuckled down she was pretty dominant in the finish.
Bred and consigned by Yulong to the 2024 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale, Within The Law was a $30,000 purchase for Darby Racing.
She is the first foal of the Dundeel mare Contract Signed, who placed in four of her eleven starts without winning.
Contract Signed is the granddaughter of the multiple Group II winner So Gorgeous from the family of Denise's Joy.
Purchased in 2021 on Inglis Digital for $30,000 by Chatsworth Farm, Contract Signed has a yearling colt by Tagaloa and was covered by Written Tycoon last spring.
Within The Law is the first runner in Australia for Lucky Vega (IRE), who was off the mark in New Zealand with first runner, Vega for Luck.
The winner of the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes at two, runner-up in the Middle Park Stakes and Royal Ascot St James's Palace Stakes, and third in the Two Thousand Guineas, the son of Lope de Vega stands at Yulong Stud for $16,500 this spring.
