Saturday’s Group 1 Schweppes Oaks (2000m) at Morphettville pitches some up and coming types such as the favoured Chris Waller runner Savacool, who has yet to taste stakes company, against some battled hardened warriors like the Tony McEvoy-trained Bring Me Roses who has danced every dance in the spring and autumn.
Placed in the Listed Oaklands Plate and Listed Morphettville Guineas in Adelaide, Bring Me Roses ventured to Melbourne as a maiden.
The daughter of High Chaparral quickly shed that tag.
The crowd was still buzzing after Winx careered away with a six and a half-length win in the Group 1 Turnbull Stakes, when Bring Me Roses came with a barnstorming finish from near the tail of the field to defeat another daughter of High Chaparral (IRE), Hiyaam, in the Group II Edward Manifold Stakes. (photo Grant Courtney ).
While Hiyaam went on to prove the value of that form in Sydney in the autumn by winning the Group 1 Vinery Stud Stakes before an exceptionally courageous second to Unforgotten in the Group 1 ATC Australian Oaks, Bring Me Roses had a largely forgettable time of it in Sydney after placing in the Group 1 Victorian Oaks, Group 1 Australian Guineas and Group III Vanity Stakes in Melbourne.
There was still plenty to like in the fourth in the ATC Oaks at her most recent start to suggest Bring Me Roses looks solid value at the $12 she is quoted for Saturday’s race.
A homebred for Dr Denis O’Brien, Bring Me Roses is the 13th live foal of the Polish Patriot mare Freckled Face.
An impressive winner of her first two starts in Brisbane at two back in the spring of 1995 including the valuable Doomben Dollars, Freckled Face chipped a bone in her knee and did not appear again for ninth months when fifth in the Group II San Domenico Stakes at Randwick.
Following a fourth in the Group II Silver Shadow Stakes, Freckled Face tailed the field in the Group III Furious Stakes and headed back home to Brisbane.
A bargain basement $6,000 yearling purchase for Dr O’Brien and trainer Lloyd Hickmott, Freckled Face won two of her next seven starts but was never asked to tackle stakes company again.
Like her own dam, the unraced Sir Ivor mare Ivory Maid, who had 18 foals, Freckled Face proved prolific with 13 foals and all nine to race to date have been winners.
Before the emergence of Bring Me Roses the best was the Group III VRC Bobbie Lewis Stakes winner and Group 1 Caulfield Guineas runner-up Face Value (Red Ransom).
Her stakes-placed daughter Face Of The Earth (Strategic) is carrying on the legacy producing the Group III winner and $711,000 earned Diamond Earth (Chosir) and the stakes-placed Halle Rock (Fastnet Rock).
The 13th and final foal of Freckled Face, a three-quarter brother to Bring Me Roses, by High Chaparral’s champion son So You Think, was consigned to the 2017 Magic Millions National Yearling Sale where he was knocked down to David Lucas for $110,000 and has been named Phoenix Flyer.
And on the subject of So You Think, the 10-time Group 1 winner has two live chances in the Oaks with the very promising, Daren Weir-trained pair, Think Bleue and Sopressa.
