Trainer Peter Morgan has confirmed that tough filly Eloping is a chance of contesting the 2014 Champagne Classic (1200m) at Doomben on May 10.
Eloping recorded the biggest win of her racing career to date in the Royal Randwick Stakes last weekend. Photo by: Steve Hart
Eloping has already had seven race starts since making her racing debut with a win at Bendigo in the BJC Members Celebration (900m) on December 22 last year, but has been thrilled with the way that she has come through each of her race starts and is happy to keep racing the filly if she remains fit.
Morgan thought that the juvenile campaign of Eloping would be over after both her win in the VOBIS Gold Rush (1000m) at Bendigo on March 15 and her seventh place finish in the Group 1 Golden Slipper (1200m) at Rosehill Gardens on April 5, but he told TVN that the Choisir filly had recovered well from her front-running victory in the Group 3 Royal Randwick Stakes (1200m) last Saturday.
“If she does well in the next four or five days that’s in all likelihood where we will head,” Morgan said.
“Fillies can get in a bit of a zone and you’ve just got to keep going.
“You can turn them, they can chip a bone in the paddock and some of them come back and never recapture the form they showed.”
The Champagne Classic has generally drawn strong fields in the past decade, with talented horses like Gold Edition (2006), Funtantes (2009), Sizzling (2012) and Vo Heart (2013), all recording wins in the Group 2 event and Morgan is confident that Eloping is the right sort of horse for the Group 2 event.
“You’d think that Doomben would suit,” Morgan said.
“Stephen Baster doesn’t think too many horses can lead her.
“Stephen said she bounces out and after 60 or 70 metres she’s on the bridle and feels like a Ferrari.”
Eloping recorded her maiden win at black type level, in just her second race start, in the Listed Blue Diamond Preview (1000m) at Caulfield on January 25 and was far from disgraced when second behind Earthquake in the Group 3 Blue Diamond Prelude (1100m) at the same venue on February 8.
She produced the worst performance of her career to date in the Listed Sports 1000 (1000m) at Flemington on March 1, but returned to her best form with a dominant six lengths win in the VOBIS Gold Rush before finishing an unlucky seventh in the Golden Slipper.
