Trainer Gai Waterhouse has ruled out a Cox Plate preparation for English during the Melbourne Spring Carnival with the Group 1 winning filly to be kept to a sprinting campaign.
English, above, will be set for the major sprint races during the 2016 Spring Carnival. Photo by Steve Hart.
“You will be seeing her in most of the sprint races and she doesn’t kick off until late September,” Waterhouse told RSN’s Racing Ahead.
English won her maiden Group 1 when she flashed home to claim victory in the Group 1 $600,000 Schweppes All Aged Stakes (1400m) at Randwick during the 2016 Sydney Autumn Carnival.
Waterhouse had originally planned a Brisbane Winter Carnival campaign for English but a change in direction saw the filly sent to the paddock for a spell and she now has ruled out a tilt at the Group 1 $3m Cox Plate (2040m) at Moonee Valley on October 22.
The leading Randwick trainer is very impressed with the way English spelled and said she has re-entered the stables in superb condition and will be a much more mature racehorse when she kicks off the Spring campaign as a four year old mare.
“She is going super, “ Waterhouse said.
“She is so relaxed, she had matured hugely because on the tracks she was always really a force to be reckoned with.”
“Often being saddle up and in the mounting enclosure she would waste a lot of energy but she seems to be much more contained.”
“She is really going great.”
The lightly raced English has performed well at the highest level in both her two year old season and her three old year old season and has earned $1,727,950 in prizemoney for her connections from four wins and two placings from eight starts.
English won her first two race starts and after a debut win in a 1000m Kembla Grange two year old Maiden she went on to win the Group 2 $300,000 Guinness Reisling Stakes (1200m) at Randwick during the 2015 Sydney Autumn Carnival.
The Encosta De Lago filly then ran a mighty race when second to her stablemate Vancouver in the Group 1 $3.5m Tooheys New Golden Slipper Stakes (1200m) at Rosehill.
English then resumed as a three year old after a lengthy break to score a first up win in the Group 2 $500,000 Hyland Race Colours Challenge Stakes (1000m) at Randwick on March 5 and then went on to win the All Aged Stakes three runs later.
