Mac ’N’ Cheese showed she is highly capable of stepping up to 2000m for the Australasian Oaks at Morphettville on April 30 after smoking the field on the straight during the $107,250 Clare Lindop Stakes (1600m).
Mick Price and Michael Kent’s Perceptive – second in betting at $7 – was two clear at the turn, but Mac ’N’ Cheese’s trainer Tony McEvoy never panicked with Barend Vorster aboard the $2.30 favourite.
The eventual victor then gunned down Perceptive to record an easy three-length victory in the three-year-old fillies’ mile race.
In doing so, Mac ’N’ Cheese left McEvoy with a pleasant surprise – he may have unearthed a quality stayer.
MAC ‘N’ CHEESE is a very good horse!
She made a mess of them in the Clare Lindop Stakes!@mcevoymitchell @Spendthrift_au @RacingSA pic.twitter.com/Cq5hfb9zIn
— Racing.com (@Racing) March 26, 2022
“(Mac ’N’ Cheese) ran against her pedigree a little bit,” McEvoy told racing.com.
“She’s a sister to a Group 1 sprinter. You’ve got to respect pedigree. But everything about her tells me she’ll love the 2000m of the Oaks.
“She’s very easy to train but please don’t pass that onto the owners. They mightn’t pay their bill.”
Everything about the way Mac ‘N’ Cheese went about her run on Saturday told McEvoy she was ready to step up to 2000m, after recording her third win from seven starts.
“To my eye she never travelled. Barend was at her and I thought at the mile she would travel,” McEvoy said.
“And then coming into the straight I was really comfortable.
“He (Vorster) was coming over to the outside and then he got one of the best hip-and-shoulders you’ve ever seen, but thankfully it spurred her on.
“And she picked up and was very impressive.”
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