Stay With Me has been backed into 2016 Light Fingers Stakes odds of $4 and co-trainer Tom Dabernig is very bullish about the chances of the Thousand Guineas winner in the Group 2 event at Royal Randwick on Saturday.
Stay With Me will return to the races in the 2016 Light Fingers Stakes at Royal Randwick this weekend. Photo by: Ultimate Racing Photos
Stay With Me promised a great deal without delivering as a two-year-old, but she went to another level during the 2015 Spring Racing Carnival and took out both the Listed Atlantic Jewel Stakes (1200m) and Group 1 Thousand Guineas (160m) before she finished a credible sixth in the Group 1 Myer Classic (1600m) at Flemington.
The Street Cry filly was sent to the spelling paddock following the Myer Classic and she was sent to Sydney by the Lindsay Park team, where she showed that she was ready for a return to racing with a fast-finishing third behind English and First Seal in a barrier trial over 839 meters at Royal Randwick on January 29.
The Light Fingers Stakes is not the major Sydney Autumn Racing Carnival target for Stay With Me, but Dabernig has been delighted with the work of the three-year-old ahead of her racing return and is confident she will win first-up in the 2016 Light Fingers Stakes.
“She is really well,” Dabernig said.
“She had a trial up in Sydney, she finished third in what was a really hot trial and she let down strongly.
“She has had a couple of nice bits of work on that Kensington grass leading into the race and she is spot on.
“She has drawn the outside gate, but she is a filly that we just ride quietly and she won at Moonee Valley over 1200 metres when she sat off the pace.
“I thought she was really strong when she won there over 1200.
“I think she has been flying in her track work, she is in excellent order and I am confident that she is going to be very hard to beat.”
The Light Fingers Stakes will be one of the most competitive races on the Royal Randwick card tomorrow and there are five separate horses that are currently available at single figure Light Fingers Stakes odds.
Undefeated Godolphin Ghisoni is available at a quote of $3.50 and she is a narrow favourite from Kangarilla Joy ($3.80) and Stay With Me, who has been backed from $4.40 into $4, while there has also been support for Pearls ($6) and Perignon ($9).
