Tobeornottobe (+500) has backed up her strong form lines behind Blue Diamond Stakes winner Hayasugi to break her maiden and take out the Group 3 Thoroughbred Breeders Stakes down the Flemington straight.
After finishing second in a close photo on debut in the Group 3 Blue Diamond Preview, the Robbie Griffiths & Mathew de Kock-trained filly then finished fourth in the Group 2 Blue Diamond Prelude, the winner clearly brought the best form of any of her rivals.
In the running, there was a group of five running up the inside of the track, led by race favourite Ameena (+125), and Tobeornottobe led a group of four up the outside of the straight.
However, as the whips began to crack it was the daughter of Pierata who got the better of the wayward favourite in the final 200m and she pulled clear late to win by 1.5 lengths on the line.
Behind the top two, Yes Lulu (+850) and Flattered (+600) finished in third and fourth after running on strongly from the back of each group of runners.
Mathew de Kock represented the stable in the post-race interview and he was elated with the win of Tobeornottobe.
“She’s an absolute ripper. She did everything right in the (Blue Diamond) Preludes and unfortunately she put a little cut on her and she couldn’t run in the Blue Diamond,” de Kock said.
“We elected to wait for this and it has paid dividends.
“Our pre-race thoughts to the owners were that we hoped it would be a two-horse race (with Ameena) and that we’d come out on top.
“The fillies around Australia this year have been outstanding and we’ve seen that in the Blue Diamond and the Slipper and we hoped we’d tie in with them.
“We’re hoping that we can go to the Percy Sykes in a couple of weeks.”
After riding the filly at her last two starts, Jye McNeil was very happy to get a deserved win at his third attempt, and he spoke post-race.
“I just tried to ride my filly, she’s a professional and always acquits herself and Robbie and Mat have done a great job to get her back after a slight hiccup and for her to get the win,” McNeil said.
“From where we were drawn we were happy to stay in our lane.
“We didn’t want Ameena to come across and get the run of the race and that worked out really well for us.”
Tobeornottobe is an +1000 chance in the Percy Sykes Stakes futures market with online bookmakers.
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