Premiership winning trainer Peter Moody will be searching for his first Golden Slipper winner when he saddles up Bring Me The Maid at Rosehill on Saturday.
Bring Me The Maid comes into Golden Slipper contention with win in Magic Night Stakes. Photo by Steve Hart.
Bring Me The Maid earned her spot in the Group 1 $3.5m Tooheys New Golden Slipper (1200m) with a near last to first win in the Group 2 $175,000 IRT Magic Night Stakes (1200m) at Rosehill last Saturday and Moody is giving the Sebring filly a genuine chance of repeating that effort this week.
“I entered her, so I obviously have thought for a long while that she might be good enough,’’ Moody told the Herald Sun.
“But you still have to get there and suddenly she’s about fourth favourite and a bloody live chance.”
Bring Me The Maid has been rated a $11 Golden Slipper chance with Ladbrokes.com.au and Moody says the form lines are starting to come together.
Bring Me The Maid was able to beat Mick Price’s smart filly More Radiant on debut in the Listed $120,000 Sports 1000 (1000m) at Flemington on March 1 and Moody was buoyed after seeing More Radiant get beaten less than two lengths by Earthquake in the Group 2 $300,000 Parramatta Leagues Club Reisling Stakes (1200m) at Rosehill on March 22.
“And when I saw More Radiant get pretty close to Earthquake last start I thought “hello, we’re in this,” Moody said.
Moody’s filly also has the advantage of winning the Magic Night Stakes on a heavy track and with Rosehill looking like being wet again this week could go against Earthquake who is untested on rain affected tracks with all four wins being on top of the ground.
Bring Me The Maid was selected at the Magic Millions sales by the late Roy Higgins, who passed away just over a couple of weeks ago, and the champion jockey will no doubt be riding her along in the Golden Slipper.
Higgins was able see Bring Me The Maid win on debut at Flemington before his passing and his Syndicating partner Wylie Dalziel says the filly will be running for him.
“Physically, he’s not with us but I know he’s there and he’ll be watching and she’ll do him proud,” Dalziel said.
“It’s been a whirlwind. I’m glad he was alive when she won her first race.”
“It’s our first Golden Slipper runner and it’s also my first Group 1 runner since we restructured the business under Dalziel-Higgins racing.”
Peter Snowden’s undefeated filly Earthquake maintains her stranglehold on the Golden Slipper market order even though she has eased slightly to $2.50 while second favourite Mossfun remains steady at $5.
Earthquake’s stablemate Ghibellines and Bring Me The Maid share the next line of betting at $11 ahead of Melbourne colt Cornrow at $15 and the Gai Waterhouse trained Valentia at $17.
