Godolphin trained filly Colette silenced her doubters at Randwick on Saturday by winning the $500,000 Group 1 Australian Oaks (2400m) in another dominant staying performance.
The three-year-old daughter of Hallowed Crown was backing up on short rest after winning the Group 3 Adrian Knox Stakes and fluctuated in the market all morning. At the jump, the punters had backed her into favouritism once again, and champion jockey Glen Boss did not disappoint by steering the filly into another comfortable victory.
The race started quickly with second-elect Probabeel getting back and Colette sitting up on the speed in third. Strange Charm took an early lead, right before Stick Em’ Up riled up on the outside at the 1400m to quicken the pace.
Boss eventually found himself sitting three-wide into the straight and with plenty of daylight in front. What followed was a display reminiscent of last Saturday’s dominant three-length win in the Adrian Knox, as Colette put the foot down to hand James Cummings his first-ever Oaks win.
“She’s got a wonderful future, she’s a really great example of coming through our system,” Cummings said after the race.
“She extended her campaign beautifully for what has been an excellent plan to come to fruition, to perform like that and to start favourite on the day against some well-performed horses and now she’s stormed away with an Oaks win, it’s an amazing highlight for her.”
Colette is now a perfect 3/3 this time in and has to be considered among the best three-year-old fillies in the country. Her electric turn of foot sets her up to win many more Group 1 races, while she also became the fourth favourite in a row to win the Oaks following Bonneval’s victory in 2017, Unforgotten’s in 2018 and Verry Elleegant’s last year.
Also not forgotten was Boss, who added his fourth Oaks win to the resume.
“He’s delivered a beautiful ride on her, quickly understood that she is a sweet filly, he just needed to have her in a position where he could steer her into the clear and she stayed on too strongly,” Cummings said of Boss’ ride.
Meanwhile, the Chris Waller trained Toffee Tongue showed further improvement finishing runner-up for the fourth time in a row, but there was no such luck for Probabeel, who found himself too far back in the late stages.
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