Trainer Robert Heathcote will set a course towards the next year’s Group 1 $400,000 Queensland Oaks (2400m) at Eagle Farm with Sea Red after the filly scored a runaway win at Doomben on Wednesday.
Trainer Robert Heathcote and jockey Ryan Wiggins combined to win a winning double at Doomben. Photo by Daniel Costello.
Sea Red was sent out the $4.40 third favourite but won like an odds chance when she raced away to score by four and a half lengths in the Sky Racing QTIS Maiden Plate for the three year fillies over 1350m.
Heathcote already had an high opinion of the Sebring filly and was quick to declare a Queensland Oaks campaign was on the agenda for next year’s Brisbane Winter Carnival.
“She is my Oaks filly for next year,” Heathcote told AAP.
“I know you might say she only just won a midweek maiden but she is very smart.
“I started her first-up here in a 1350-metre race because I plan to try her over longer trips this campaign with the Oaks in mind for the winter.”
Even though Sea Red was able to streak the rest for the field, winning rider Ryan Wiggins by no means had an armchair ride.
From a wide barrier, Wiggins had to settle the three year old in sixth and seventh spot early before circling the field to score an impressive won.
Sea Red was having her fourth race start and her first since finishing third in a 1350m Maiden at Ipswich on September 5 and on yesterday’s performance there are many more wins in stall.
Sea Red’s win wrapped up a winning double for Heathcote and Wiggins after the pair combined to win the first race on the card with Tale Of The Dragon.
The four year old mare was having her fifth race start and showed her liking for the 2150m with a one length win over Zips A Daisy and Whispering Tess.
Heathcote is currently sitting second in the Brisbane trainer’s premiership behind Matthew Dunn with twenty-two and a half wins and has collected four Group 1 wins this season with stable star Buffering winning three Group 1s on the trot as well as Solzhenitsyn picking up his second Group1 trophy over the Melbourne Spring Carnival.
Solzhenitsyn made it back to back wins in the Group 1 $400,000 David Jones NBCF Toorak Handicap (1600m) at Caulfield on October 12 while Buffering broke through for his maiden Group 1 win in the $1m Sportingbet Manikato Stakes (1200m) at Moonee Valley on October 25.
Buffering then went on to take out the Group 1 $1m VRC Sprint Classic (1200m) at Flemington on November 9 and then made it a Group 1 hat trick with a narrow win in the $500,000 Crown Perth – Winterbottom Stakes (1200m) at Ascot in Perth on November 23.
