Talented filly Stay With Me is set to start her 2016 Sydney Autumn Racing Carnival campaign in the 2016 Light Fingers Stakes at Royal Randwick on February 13.
Stay With Me could take on the older horses in the 2016 Coolmore Classic. Photo by: Ultimate Racing Photos
Stay With Me raced exclusively in Melbourne during the 2015 Spring Racing Carnival and she has not raced in Sydney since she finished fifth behind English in the Group 2 Reisling Stakes (1200m) at Royal Randwick on March 7, but she has already returned to New South Wales and will not race in Melbourne during her autumn campaign.
Co-trainer Tom Dabernig told Racing Ahead that Stay With Me will start her campaign in the Light Fingers Stakes before progressing to the Group 2 Surround Stakes (1400m) at Royal Randwick on February 27 and potentially taking on the older horses in the Group 1 Coolmore Classic (1500m) at Rosehill Gardens on March 12.
“Stay With Me is in great order and she is actually up in Sydney at the moment,” Dabernig said.
“She will have a trial there tomorrow and she will probably kick-off in the Light Fingers.
“It is possible she will run in the Surround and we will judge it after that.
“We might even consider the Coolmore for fillies and mares.”
Stay With Me started her autumn campaign with a dominant four and a half lengths victory in the APM Group Maiden Plate (1200m) at Pakenham on August 20 and she stamped herself as a leading Thousand Guineas contender when she took out the Listed Atlantic Jewel Stakes (1200m) at Moonee Valley on September 5.
The Street Cry filly was never able to get into the race when she finished sixth in the Group 2 Thousand Guineas Prelude (1400m) at Caulfield on September 26, but she returned to winning form with an outstanding performance in the Group 1 Thousand Guineas (1600m) at the same venue on October 10 before her chances were cruelled by the Flemington track bias in the Group 1 Myer Classic (1600m) on Victoria Derby Day.
The Lindsay Park team has always been confident that Stay With Me would be an even better horse as an autumn three-year-old and Dabernig believes that she has come on ahead of her autumn campaign.
“She definitely hasn’t gone backwards,” Dabernig said.
“I don’t know if I am looking at her through rose coloured glasses, but to my eye she is flying.”
Stay With Me is currently available at 2016 Doncaster Mile odds of $26 with Ladbrokes, while Winx ($8) is a narrow favourite from Press Statement ($9) and Azkadellia ($11).
