More Joyous Likely to be Queen Again

$1.40. That is the price bookies are offering about More Joyous in this Saturday’s Group 1 Queen Of The Turf Stakes (1500m) at Rosehill.

More Joyous is the clear favourite to win the Queen Of The Turf Stakes. Photo by: Steve Hart.

And can you blame them?

The glamour mare may have struggled when travelling to Melbourne but as far as Sydney goes she truly is the queen.

More Joyous will gun for a third consecutive Queen Of The Turf Stakes title this weekend, having hammered her rivals by three lengths in 2011 and 2 1/2 in 2012.

Outside of Black Caviar, More Joyous is Australia’s standout mare. Her record is phenomenal.

From 31 trips to the track she has won 21 times and placed another three, amassing a prize pool of more than $4.5 million.

From that the six-year-old has scored eight Group 1 wins including carrying 57.5kg to win last year’s Doncaster Mile.

Drawn in barrier one with regular jockey Nash Rawiller aboard, More Joyous looks perfectly placed this weekend.

After a disappointing spring campaign, the More Than Ready mare showed she is a different proposition in the autumn when finishing off powerfully to run second to superstar stablemate Pierro in the Group 1 Canterbury Stakes last month.

Rawiller was in the saddle for the Canterbury Stakes hit-out and described her performance on that day as “great.”

Nobody knows More Joyous better than Rawiller who has ridden her in 26 of her 31 career starts including her unbeaten 2012 autumn campaign.

Chris Waller-trained mare Red Tracer is the second Queen Of The Turf favourite at $8.50 after finishing a narrow runner-up in the Group 1 Coolmore Classic on March 23.

The only time Red Tracer met More Joyous was in last year’s Queen Of The Turf when she was beaten four lengths in fifth position.

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