The 2014 Sires Produce Stakes results saw Peggy Jean win the first Group 1 on the first day of ‘The Championships’ at Randwick today.
Trainer Gerald Ryan’s decision to skip the Group 1 $3.5m Tooheys New Golden Slipper (1200m) at Rosehill last week with Peggy Jean and concentrate on today’s Group 1 $1m Inglis Sires Produce Stakes (1400m) was rewarded handsomely.
Peggy Jean ($3.80) was able to draw away from her only challenger Scratch Me Lucky ($26) over the final fifty metres to score a clear cut half length win with Cornrow ($26) fighting off the rest the field for third, six lengths behind the winner.
Peggy Jean’s stablemate Believe Yourself, the $3.30 favourite, was well beaten on the heavy track to finish tenth.
The in-form Nash Rawiller has a very high opinion of the Myboycharlie filly and said that she would be an ideal Thousand Guineas filly in the Spring.
“She is pretty special I reckon and just putting it together now. With the right bloke, he can pick his races here, you know. A Thousand Guineas filly written all over her in the Spring,” Rawiller said.
Ryan agreed with Rawiller and has always thought that Peggy Jean would be a better filly when the Spring comes around.
“She’s a good filly. Kerrin McEvoy rang me after riding her when she won in January and said that he thought that she would be a better filly in the Spring,” Ryan said.
“I agree with him but when they are two year olds and they are going good you have a crack.”
Ryan has no regrets about missing the Golden Slipper and Triple Crown Syndicators Michael and Chris Ward can now celebrate a Group 1 win with their huge legion of owners.
“I said to the Triple Crown boys Chris and Michael that she wasn’t a Golden Slipper filly, she was more a Sires – Champagne and we have just aimed her towards that. They have been terrific, the owners have been understanding, could have had a runner in the slipper, but have waited for the next two.”
“It’s a Group 1 and they can’t take it from us.”
Peggy Jean will start as one of the top fancies in the Group 1 $400,000 Moet & Chandon Champagne Stakes (1600m) at Randwick in two weeks time.