A Cox Plate start will await three year old filly Go Indy Go if she proves to be an impressive winner of the Group 1 $500,000 Schweppes Thousand Guineas (1600m) at Caulfield on Saturday.
Go Indy Go could find herself in the field for the Cox Plate if she wins the Thousand Guineas at Caulfield.
Morphettville trainer Leon Macdonald will seriously consider a start in the Group 1 $3m Sportingbet Cox Plate (2040m) at Moonee Valley on October 25 if Go Indy Go can record her second Group 1 victory this weekend.
“If she comes out of the Thousand Guineas and just blew them away well why wouldn’t you, Macdonald told the Sportsman.
Macdonald, who trains in partnership with Andrew Gluyas, knows that he would be setting the Bernardini filly a huge task with the only three year old filly to win the Cox Plate was the mighty Surround back in 1976.
“It hasn’t been done since Surround, we all know that, she has been kept in it but whether she runs we don’t know,” Macdonald said.
Macdonald was left speechless when Go Indy Go was beaten almost twenty-six lengths at her first run back this Spring in the Group 2 $200,000 Danehill Stakes (1200m) at Flemington on September 13.
But her Spring campaign was back on track when she went to the line strongly when third to her Thousand Guineas rivals Afleet Esprit and Amicus in the Group 2 $200,000 Schweppes Thousand Guineas Prelude (1400m) at Caulfield on September 28
Go Indy Go is only one of two fillies going around in the Thousand Guineas who have raced over the distance of the Thousand Guineas and proved that she could handle the 1600m with a commanding win in the Group 1 $400,000 Moet & Chandon Champagne Stakes (1600m) at Randwick during the Sydney Autumn Carnival.
“Maybe being out of a Zabeel mare she is getting a bit more relaxed and wanting to stay,” Macdonald said.
“I think the blinkers will switch her on and I am sure will be powering home.”
“She meets the two horses that beat her home the other day better at the weights.”
“If she runs up to her Randwick win then she probably has to win, doesn’t she.”
Go Indy Go is sharing the second line of betting at $5 with Afleet Esprit in the Thousand Guineas market order at Ladbrokes.com.au who have the Robert Smerdon trained filly Lumosty the $4.20 favourite.
Smerdon took the unorthodox approach to the Thousand Guineas for Lumosty who was sent the country to escape the hard Melbourne tracks and recorded a nine length win in a Sale maiden on October 1, giving the bookies the task of lining up a country Victoria maiden winner alongside of a Randwick Group 1 winner.
In Cox Plate markets, Go Indy Go is listed as a $34 chance.
