$13m payday on offer with ugly ducklings
TELL him he’s dreaming. That’s what David Vandyke would have said if you told him a year ago that Gypsy Goddess and Weona Smartone would be racing for $13m combined in one day.
That will be the case on Saturday when the Group 1 winning Gypsy Goddess lines up in the $10m Golden Eagle (1500m) and connections pay the late entry fee for Weona Smartone in the $3m Nature Strip Stakes (1300m) at Rosehill.
Gypsy Goddess was the ugly duckling that showed so little in her early trials, Vandyke was ready to put her in an online auction and before his last start, Weona Smartone was the speedy squib that struggled beyond 1100m.
“This time last year, if you told me Gypsy Goddess was going to be running in a $10m race and Weona Smartone was going to be in a $3m 1300m race, I would have said you had no idea,” Vandyke laughed.
“I’m from the era and I remember when Kingston Town won a million dollars, that seemed like an absolute fortune back then. It is amazing to think we are in a race where the prizemoney is double what the Cox Plate is.”
After pocketing $195,000 for running third as a $21 outsider in the Group 3 Sydney Stakes a fortnight ago, Vandyke says it made sense to try their luck again in the super rich Nature Strip.
“I thought I had this horse worked out as a speedy horse who needed to lead or at least race on pace and would be most effective at the 1000m or 1100m,” he said.
“I never thought in a million years that we would be going around in a $3m 1300m race, I guess it is what racing does – throws up surprises good and bad.
“It was a big run last time, really impressive.”
While Vandyke has the Group 1 Empire Rose (1600m) as a back-up plan in Melbourne should Sydney’s weather again turn bad, he says he will more than likely head to the Golden Eagle with Gypsy Goddess on Saturday.
It is part of an ambitious hit-and-run mission, which will see the Queensland Oaks winner resume in her only start for the campaign.