The South Australian bred and trained Pretty Baby highlighted her claims for the upcoming $1.5m G1 MRC Thousand Guineas (1600m) after delivering her rivals a thumping in the $175,000 Listed MVRC Atlantic Jewel Stakes (1300m) on the Sandown Hillside course.
Breaking her maiden in the Listed SAJC Oaklands Plate four starts back, the Gordon Richards and Damien Moyle trained Barbados filly has been unbeaten since.
Pretty Baby jumped away well from the gates before settling in a mid-field position with Jamie Melham in the saddle while the Ben, Will and JD Hayes trained Tortue (NZ) took up the running with Ciaron Maher’s Street Boss filly Ghana’s Khan sitting on the outside of the leader.
With Tortue leading the field into the home straight, Rubi’s Choice was coming up wide to put herself into a challenge position while last start season’s G2 VRC Sires’ winner Grinzinger Heart was looking for room closer to the inside.
As Melham gave the reins a little shake, Pretty Baby responded with ease, powering down the outside where she took the lead with 200m to run, pulling away for a facile three and three-quarter length victory.
Having interestingly won on Pretty Baby’s dam way back in 2016, Melham was super impressed with the win.
“She’s something else, this horse,” said Melham. “I feel really old, I used to ride her mum a lot, and she was a bit difficult. This filly is the same, but she’s got a lot more talent.”
“She did it at home at Morphettville really easily, but obviously she had to step up with the field around her.
“Today, she was a real professional, she did everything right.
“She’s improved a lot since her last start, but there’s still a lot to come.”
Now favourite for the $1.5m G1 Thousand Guineas (1600m) at Caulfield on October 17, co-trainer Damien Moyle was extremely pleased to see how she stacked up with the Melbourne fillies.
“We think a lot of her and it’s good to see her perform over here,” said Moyle. “We’re undecided, we’re going to take it one run at a time, but I think we’re on track; we’ll see how we go.”
Moyle indicated the filly will likely head back to Melbourne for the G2 Thousand Guineas Prelude (1400m) at Caulfield in two weeks.
Taking her record to four wins, two at black type level with two placed efforts from seven starts and $301,890 in earnings, the John McKinnon-bred and co-raced filly is a daughter of the Darley bred blueblood Barbados, a son of Redoute’s Choice out of the G1-winning grey sprinter Virage de Fortune.
From the family of G1 winner Mizzy and G2 winner She’s Got Pizzazz, Pretty Baby is the lone stakes winner from three winners out of the Southern Image mare Louisiana who produced a filly last spring by Newhaven Park's Cool Aza Beel and was subsequently not covered.
Pretty Baby is one of five stakes performers for Barbados, with the grey stallion standing at South Australia’s Ducatoon Park for a fee of $3,300 (inc. GST).
