Egg Tart nabs Oaks
Single Gaze win lost in tragic end to O’Shea
EGG Tart could follow a similar path to her champion stablemate Winx after a brilliant win in the Group 1 Queensland Oaks (2200m) at Doomben yesterday.
Egg Tart ($3.10) charged home to beat Pygmy ($41) by 1¼ lengths with a short neck to Oklahoma Girl ($9) in third place.
Trainer Chris Waller won his second Queensland Oaks after his great mare Winx took the race in 2015 when it was also run at Doomben.
Waller, who had seven runners in the race, immediately ruled out backing up Egg Tart in the Queensland Derby (2200m) next Saturday.
But he is looking towards the spring with Egg Tart who made it six wins in a row.
Waller has made a point of not comparing Egg Tart to Winx.
“After Winx won the Queensland Oaks we ended up chasing the Epsom at Randwick. It was probably because the Epsom was put up to being worth $1 million,” Waller said.
“It is the type of race we will probably look at with Egg Tart.”
Waller said he liked Egg Tart because she was a consistent horse who liked racing.
“When she won a race at Flemington three starts back I began to think she was a genuine Group 1 horse,” he said.
“She travelled well down there and handled everything about it.”
Waller has now won nine Group 1 races this season and is one ahead of arch-rival Darren Weir with four Group 1 races left in 2016-17.
Winning jockey Kerrin McEvoy brought up his eighth Group 1 of the season to make sure he will finish second on the Australian list behind Hugh Bowman.
“Egg Tart is a fantastic filly.
“She had a turn of foot to get me out of trouble after we got caught behind some slow ones,” McEvoy said.
“I am looking forward to the spring,” he said.
Tommy Berry was predicting a big future for Pygmy who ran home strongly.
“She is coming out of two provincial races into a Group 1,” Berry said.
Blake Shinn said his mount Oklahoma Girl had been brave but Egg Tart had been too good. THE breakdown of Cylinder Beach has marred the win of Single Gaze in the Group 2 PJ O’Shea Stakes (2200m) at Doomben yesterday.
Single Gaze won the O’Shea in emphatic fashion amid distressing scenes when Cylinder Beach suffered a fatal injury near the 200m.
Cylinder Beach was looming as a chance when he faltered and was quickly eased down by jockey Jim Byrne.
Trainer Desligh Forster sprinted to Cylinder Beach’s side to attend to the gelding and was inconsolable when she returned to the enclosure.
Stewards confirmed Cylinder Beach was euthanised after breaking down in the near fore fetlock.
Winning trainer Nick Olive experienced mixed emotions after the O’Shea.
“You hate to see that sort of thing happen in a race and I feel very sorry for the connections and trainer of Cylinder Beach,” Olive said.
“We’ve won a Group 2 and I suppose we need to be positive about that.”
Olive praised Single Gaze’s consistency and will-to-win.
“For a country trainer to get a horse of this quality and to have this mare turn up every time is pretty rare,” Olive said.
“We forget she ran third in the Magic Millions, raced in the Slipper as a two-year-old and now here she is winning Group 2 weight-for-age races.”
Olive said Single Gaze is likely to miss next Saturday’s Brisbane Cup (2400m) and be aimed instead at the spring carnival in Melbourne.
The Caulfield Cup is high on a list of races Olive will now consider for Single Gaze, who has battled injury to make it back to the races following a fall in last year’s ATC Australian Oaks.