Smart filly Invincible Gem is gearing up for a profitable Spring Carnival with an impressive 1000m barrier trail win at Newcastle this morning.

Invincible Gem, above, will resume for the Spring in the Missile Stakes at Randwick. Photo by Steve Hart.

Invincible Gem, above, will resume for the Spring in the Missile Stakes at Randwick. Photo by Steve Hart.

The Kris Lees trained rising four year old looks set to continue her first class Sydney Autumn Carnival form in the upcoming Spring Carnival with the Group 2 $400,000 Golden Pendant (1400m) at Rosehill on September 23 as one of her main goals.

The leading Newcastle trainer was very impressed with Invincible Gem’s winning trial effort and is looking to kick off her Spring Carnival campaign in the Group 2 $200,000 Missile Stakes (1200m) at Randwick on August 5.

Lees’ multiple Group 1 winner Le Romain was also a Newcastle trial winner today and the stablemates look likely to clash first up in the Missile Stakes.

“She’s probably a little more forward than him (Le Romain),” Lees told racing.com.

“She’s coming to hand really well. She’ll more than likely start in the Missile, same as him, and then head on a more mares’ path in Sydney.”

Invincible Gem has only been to the races on nine occasions for four wins and worked her way up through the classes at the beginning of the 2017 Sydney Autumn Carnival before winning the Group 3 $150,000 Trainer Connections Spring Stakes (1600m) at Randwick on February 13.

The I Am Invincible filly then took that good form into the Group 1 $1m Girvan Waugh Randwick Guineas (1600m) at Randwick three weeks later where she went down narrowly to the Team Hawkes trained Inference.

Lees was also delighted with the trial performance of Le Romain who is also being readied to resume in the Missile Stakes before heading to Melbourne to run in the Group 1 $1m Memsie Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield on September 2.

“He’s come back in good order,” Lees told racing.com.

“He’s pretty professional and did everything right and while he’s still off fitness-wise, he’ll be ready to go in a couple of weeks.”

“We’ll probably head to the Memsie second-up so if we start off first-up in the Missile in Sydney, we’ll have four weeks to prepare for the race in Melbourne.”

About The Author

Mark Mazzaglia

Mark is a passionate journalist with a life-time involvement in the racing industry. He spent many years as an analyst and form expert at the Courier Mail and also has hands-on experience working with some of Queensland’s top trainers.