Trainer Stephen Marsh has named the Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes (1200m) at Flemington on Victoria Derby Day as the major 2013 Spring Racing Carnival target for classy filly Ruud Awakening.
Trainer Stephen Marsh is hoping Ruud Awakening can replicate the feat of Nechita and beat the boys in the Coolmore Stud Stakes. Photo by: Race Horse Photos Australia
Marsh told Racing Ahead that he will give Ruud Awakening a soft start to her campaign in Australia with the $80,000 Fillies Plate (1100m) at Flemington on September 7 set to be her spring kick-off point before a step-up to black type racing for the Group 3 Champagne Stakes (1200m) at Moonee Valley on Friday September 27.
The daughter of Bernardini will have to impress in her first two starts to continue on a path to the Coolmore Stud Stakes but Marsh his star filly confident can compete at the highest level of racing in Australia, despite finishing fifteenth in the Group 1 Golden Slipper (1200m) earlier in the year.
“She came home and spelled from the Golden Slipper after a luckless run which we basically put a line through,” Marsh said on TVN.
“She has done really well since she has been back in and she will come to Melbourne in late August and kick-off in the first week of September at Flemington.
“We will see how she goes after he first two runs and decide whether we keep her to the Group 2 and Group 3s or set her for a race like the Coolmore Stud Stakes.
“She deserves a crack at coming over and proving she has got the class.”
Ruud Awakening has been back in trackwork for nearly six weeks and according to Marsh has already returned to her peak racing fitness.
“She is coming back really good and is ready to go now,” the New Zealand-based trainer said.
“She is really athletic and such a natural galloper that it doesn’t take a lot to bring her up.
“She has gone right ahead from last campaign.”
Ruud Awakening is expected to be named New Zealand Champion Two-Year-Old, when the 2013 New Zealand Horse of the Year Awards are held in Hamilton on August 15, after her impressive victories in the Listed Karaka Million (1200m) and Group 1 Diamond Stakes (1200m) at the beginning of the year.
