Photo by Stuart McCormick
THE already huge Menangle Saturday night meeting just went to another level.
Speculation champion mare Ladies In Red would chase a Miracle Mile became reality when connections accepted with her in one of the two qualifying sprints for the great race on Saturday night.
Ladies In Red, who boasts 24 wins from 30 starts and over $1 million in prize money, has raced outside of her own sex just once for dominant win in the 2022 Group 1 Rising Sun where the beaten brigade included Leap To Fame and Better Eclipse, who the quinella in last December’s Inter Dominion final.
It’s a daring move to run in such a strong field this week with Ladies In Red first-up from a spell. She hasn’t raced since winning the Group 1 Queen of the Pacific at Melton on November 4.
Regular driver David Moran is excited but a tad apprehensive about Saturday night.
“We know how good she is, but she’ll have to be at her top for a race like this,” he said.
“She’s drawn well, but there’s good speed inside her, too. It’s tricky to work out how the race will be run.
“Sure, I’m excited to drive, I always am, but this will be a new challenge, especially first-up.”
Ladies In Red has pleased connections with two trials in preparation for her return.
“I drove her in the first one where Rock N Roll Doo won it easily and went super time, but she still ran 53 something for her last half and has improvement to come,” he said.’
“Then they changed the time of the trials and I couldn’t get there, so ‘Pitty’ (Mark Pitt) drove her and said she felt terrific.”
Against that, Ladies In Red was surprisingly beaten first-up last campaign and then brilliantly won her next two starts, including the Queen of the Pacific.
Former Victoria Cup winner Rock N Roll Doo looms as one of Ladies In Red’s major dangers from his draw (gate two).
Taipo (gate one), Hot And Treacherous (seven), Spirit Of St Louis (eight) and even Speak The Truth despite gate 10 look the other key runners.
Moran will drive Curly James in the other qualifying sprint, the Allied Express (race six).
“He’s had a really good first season in the good races and his Hunter Cup run was a ripper, but this won’t be easy,” he said.
“If he gets the luck and finds a spot from the draw (three), then I’m sure they’ll know he’s there.”
Ladies In Red’s stablemate, dual Newcastle Mile winner Mach Dan, gets his chance from the pole.
The big watch will be on Jason Grimson’s flying speedster Hi Manameisjeff, who will have overcome a wide draw (gate 10) in his quest for a ninth win from just 10 starts in Grimson’s care.
Inter Dominion runner-up Better Eclipse (gate seven) adds further to the class of the race, while Cantfindabettorman (two), Kanena Provlima (five) and Mach Da Vinci (nine) all ran well in last week’s Newcastle Mile.
The sprints and Chariots Of Fire will provide the other seven runners to join Leap To Fame in Saturday week’s Miracle Mile.
Back to Moran and he admits his talented four-year-old Captain Hammerhead faces a huge task in an epic $250,000 Group 1 Chariots Of Fire.
"I really like him, but what a race this is," he said. "It's got to be one of the strongest Chariots we've seen for depth.
"As I said to Domenic (Martello, owner), we don't have to worry about tactics, we just have to try and keep up in a race this strong."
Given the Chariots depth, we could see two or even three come from it and get Miracle Mile starts.
The barrier draw for the Miracle Mile is at midday Sunday.
