Ciaron Maher remains confident Petits Filous can be a serious chance of success in next month’s Group 1 Robert Sangster Stakes (1200m) despite her forgettable effort in the Arrowfield Sprint on Day 2 of The Championships.
Petits Filous remains on track for the Group 1 Robert Sangster Stakes in May. Photo: Adrienne Bicknell
Petits Filous has more than announced herself to the Australian racing community through her short racing career so far, and appeared to be on track for another big preparation when beating a classy field to the line in the Jack Elliot Handicap (1100m) first-up on March 26th.
Jumping from the gates well in the Group 2 sprint last time out, the daughter of Street Boss clearly did not handle the Sydney way of going and was caught on the wrong leg throughout; failing to beat a single runner home despite starting the race outright second-favourite.
Maher told Racing Ahead he is willing to forget the run and is pleased with Petits Filous’ condition coming out of the race.
“She’s come through it well but I think it’s probably a bit of a forget run,” Maher said.
“She looked like she wanted to go left on the home turn and just got lost.
“She had a strong gallop this morning and her work was strong. It was probably a defining gallop as to whether I pulled up stumps on the prep but she seemed to really come through it well.”
Maher remains confident Petits Filous will relish a return to fillies and mares’ company in the 2016 Robert Sangster Stakes and revealed she will likely head into the race without another lead-up.
“We’ll have a look at Adelaide with her,” Maher said.
She might have a jump-out or something next week but she’s ready to go (straight into the Robert Sangster Stakes).”
Petits Filous produced a memorable performance to win the Telstra Phonewords Handicap (1000m) on debut by six lengths in July 2015; repeating the dose in the United Refrigeration BM78 (1000m) before making a successful transition to black type company with success in the Group 3 Quezette Stakes (1100m) on August 15th.
Continuing her unbeaten career start in the Listed Cap D’Antibes Stakes (1100m), Petits Filous had clearly had enough by the time she ran a forgettable tenth amongst open company in the Group 1 Moir Stakes (1000m) on October 2nd.
