The Quezette Stakes (1100m) has gone the way of $34 chance Bound For Home, with jockey Declan Bates giving the Archie Alexander-trained filly a perfect ride in the Caulfield feature.
Although going into the race with a win and a second to her name from two career starts, punters didn’t want to be with the Rubick filly.
Positioned awkwardly on the fence from barrier three, Bates needed some luck in running, but when the run came in the straight his mount shot through and then fended off the challenge from the Group 2-placed Ojai.
There were a number of unlucky fillies in the $200,000 event, with fancied runners Waltz On By and I’mlovin’ya (3rd) both having hampered runs in transit.
2022 Quezette Stakes Replay
Despite being unfancied by the market, winning trainer Archie Alexander targeted the race with the hope that it would be a weak Group 3 before some of the better fillies resumed, but he concedes now that maybe his galloper is “one of the better ones”.
“Being a bit sort of arrogant and silly, we thought ‘let’s get in there early, it might be a bit of a weak Group 3 – she’s fit, she’s well – let’s get in there before some of the better ones come over’, but maybe she is one of the better ones,” he said.
“At the halfway – she normally jumps, puts herself on speed – she was out the back, in trouble. Declan was in an awkward spot, but sometimes you get lucky and everything opened up.”
Bound For Home doesn’t hold a nomination for the Thousand Guineas, so a race like the Atlantic Jewel Stakes looks a logical next target on September 3 at Moonee Valley.
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