Staccato coasts home in her Vicbred semi
Staccato emphatically announced that she has designs on back-to-back Vicbred Super Series titles with a commanding win in the second of two semi-finals last night at Moonee Valley.
The Steve O’Donoghue-trained filly, who won last year’s three-year-old fillies’ division, capitalised on a cracking Todd Matthews drive to book her place in next Friday night’s $100,000 four-year-old mares’ final.
The daughter of Christian Cullen, who also won the Australasian Breeders Crown at two, showed immense benefit from a first-up second placing in her heat to prove that she’s going just as well as last year.
The scary part for next week’s rivals is that Matthews believes there is still plenty of improvement in her going into the final.
“We were a little bit worried that she was second up and hadn’t done any work first up, so we thought she was going to be a bit vulnerable, but it worked out pretty good in the end,” the Bendigo reinsman said.
“Now that she’s got that run under her belt she’ll be cherry ripe for next week. She’s a pretty athletic filly, so she’s always fit, just not race fit, and that run will just top her off super for next week.”
A drive like the one O’Donoghue’s nephew produced last night wouldn’t hinder her chances of back-to-back finals.
After seeing odds-on favourite Sophie Pass caught in traffic early, Matthews made a snap decision to get around the field but once Kerryn Manning got out and rolling on the popular elect he was happy to hand over the lead.
From there he just waited until the sprint lane, which Staccato made full use of to career away for a 3-1/2m from Sophie Pass with And May I Say 1-1/2m away in third in a 1:59.4 mile rate.
Also qualifying for the Group 1 final were fourth and fifth placegetters Miss Laura Jane and Wya Mya Macray, while Cobargo Magic goes through as the fastest sixth placegetter.
The Chris Alford-trained-and-driven Howards Dilemma scored an upset 2:00.7 win in the other semi.
The Pacific Fella mare was the beneficiary of a vintage Alford drive to get home over the top of Kept For Pleasure and Show Me Amber in a 28.8-second final quarter. Rounding the top five were Lady Octavia and Wyperfeld.