Warrnambool trainer Symon Wilde is enjoying a standout season and is hoping to add further success to the tally over the weekend when he has several runners aimed at Moonee Valley on Friday night and Flemington on Saturday.
Heading his runners is the well-bred staying mare Tralee Rose (NZ) (Tavistock) who Wilde will aim at stakes races in the New Year.
“She looks pretty promising, especially over the staying journeys, and she’s given us every indication that will be her go, so we’re looking forward to seeing what she can do over the mile-and-a-half,” he said of the daughter of Tavistock.
“I think she’s done a really good job to win in lower grade in what I think were unsuitable distances, as she’s shown from the early days that she will want ground.
“We took her over for that 2500-metre SA Classic and she performed really well in running fourth.
“We put her away thinking we had a nice stayer on our hands and I think that has paid off as she’s four-and-a-half now and she looks to be just hitting her straps.”
Wilde said that if Tralee Rose runs well on Saturday, she is likely to return for the Listed Bagot Handicap (2800m) in the new year, when she could earn a shot at May’s Listed Andrew Ramsden Stakes (2800m) and ballot immunity from the Gr.1 Melbourne Cup (3200m) that goes to the winner of that latter race.
Wilde said the veteran of just seven starts is showing enormous potential with three wins on the trot this campaign.
“We thought she’d win her maiden at Warrnambool but then we were really pleasantly surprised on Oaks Day (at Flemington) and then she was ridden upside down at Sandown but was good enough to get away with it,” he said.
“Fourth-up, this is her trip and this is what we have been waiting for and she’s there in a good space.
“It has nearly been the perfect prep as she’s come through her grades so it’s probably time to raise the bar. The Bagot is well worth considering and so is a race like the Andrew Ramsden.
“She’s actually got a really good family so any black type for her is quite meaningful.
“We’re dreaming of that (winning a big race) but we’ve always said next spring she will be at her absolute peak as a five-year-old.”
Tralee Rose was purchased out of Cambridge Stud’s 2018 New Zealand Bloodstock Book 1 draft and is out of the stakes place Zabeel mare Star of Tralee (NZ), a half-sister to Group One winner Serenade Rose (Stravinsky) and multiple Group performer Ronchi (NZ) (Stravinsky).
