One time Crown Oaks favourite Tiamo Grace will get her chance to win a filly’s classic when she heads to Adelaide for the Group 1 $400,000 Schweppes Oaks (registered as Australasian Oaks) (2000m) at Morphettville on May 6.
Tiamo Grace, above winning the Wakeful Stakes, will be set for the Australasian Oaks at Morphettville. Photo by Ultimate Racing Photos.
Tiamo Grace burst into calculations for the 2016 Group 1 $1m Crown Oaks (2500m) at Flemington during Melbourne Cup week after winning the Group 2 $300,000 Mumm Wakeful Stakes (2000m) at Flemington on the first day of the Cup Carnival.
Winning Wakeful Stakes jockey Damian Lane gave her a great chance of winning the Crown Oaks five days later after the Monaco Consul filly scored a one and a quarter lengths win over Sebring Dream with Missrock in third spot.
“Off that win it would be very hard not to take her to the Crown Oaks,” Lane said after the Wakeful Stakes.
But trainer Darren Weir was against backing the filly up in the Crowns Oaks and sent her to the paddock for a spell before preparing her for an Autumn campaign.
“She lightened off a lot after she won the Wakeful and we weren’t able to run her in the Oaks,” Weir said.
“Probably the way the Oaks was run it was a good thing. We’re happy that she went to the paddock and I think the Adelaide Oaks is a realistic aim.”
The Lee Curtis trained Lasquetti Spirit caused the upset of the 2016 Melbourne Spring Carnival when the $101 chance led all the way for a spectacular win in the Crown Oaks.
The lightly raced Tiamo Grace only had her first start on August 8 when third in a Swan Hill 3yo Maiden (1208m) before scoring her first win in a 1354m Maiden at Donald on August 27.
Weir then gave the filly one more start in the country for a second in a 1600m BenchMark 64 Handicap at Murtoa before she ran second to Eleonora in the Group 3 $150,000 New Zealand Bloodstock Ethereal Stakes (2000m) at Caulfield on October 15 prior to her win in the Wakeful Stakes.
Tiamo Grace has earned $245,600 in prizemoney and bonuses for her connections from two wins, two seconds and a third from five starts.
