Kiwi owner cleans up at Randwick
Wellington owner Lib Petagna has never had a day at the races like it.
He watched Sofia Rosa win the Australian Oaks but the best was to come as Lucia Valentina got her toe into the ground and demolished the Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick on Saturday.
A long-term plan from trainer Kris Lees to attack the $4 million Group I second-up from a spell looked forlorn at the top of straight when Lucia Valentina missed a run.
‘‘I actually thought she was going to fall,’’ Petagna said.
‘‘You are watching her and you see her get shut out and think oh no.’’
Damien Oliver had great days, you get when you have ridden 109 Group I winner, but this one looked gone when he went for a gap and it had closed.
‘‘Coming to the turn I had a lot of horse and not much room to go anywhere. I went up in between a couple as we straightened and I got shut out of that,’’ Oliver said.
‘‘She picked herself up again and just went whoosh.
‘‘At the furlong it was nearly all over. I went from the outhouse to the penthouse in about 200m from the 400m to the 200m. She always likes a track and she certainly enjoy that track.’’
It was a big day for the team, a second Group I for Oliver, who now sits second behind George Moore on the Australian Group I jockey ladder, after he won the Coolmore Legacy Stakes 40 minutes earlier on Akadellia.
Trainer Lees had earlier won the Provincial Championship with Danish Twist and celebrated a plan that came together in the most brilliant fashion as Lucia Valentina won from favourite The United States with Happy Clapper third.
‘‘It’s very rewarding when you set a horse for a race so far out. I just thought I had to do something a bit different, thinking I would be taking on Winx to be fair,’’ Lees said.
‘‘She’s got a terrific turn of foot, she’s so effective at 2000m and she loves a gap between runs, I don’t know why it took me so long to do it. I just wanted to get her here with fresh legs, she didn’t have a spell, she just had a little bit of time off so she got here in really good order.’’
While the preparation had gone perfectly, Lees admitted he had almost given up hope in the running.
‘‘Things just didn’t go her way. She looked in a lot of trouble on the turn, she dipped and went down on her nose but I just knew she had that blistering turn of foot if she got a bit of clear running.’’
Petagna couldn’t believe his luck after sending Lucia Valentina as a young horse to Lees, who had been the underbidder on her.
‘‘When she came over here we thought she was real Group I horse and she has shown that, but full credit to Kris because this was his plan,’’ Petagna said. ‘‘This is surreal. ‘‘I started in racing in my early 20s, I was too young and got out of but about 12 years ago I came back and you dream about days like this.’’
Petagna’s other winner on the day, Sofia Rosa also showed plenty of attitude in winning the Australian Oaks.
‘‘I’d like to go to war with her,’’ jockey Hugh Bowman quipped as he returned to scale. ‘‘She’s got manners. They’re all bad. She went out onto the track early and she hasn’t given me a minute’s peace since I got on her.’’ But what does it matter now? Having had the New Zealand Oaks stripped off her on protest, there was never going to be any doubt about the Australian equivalent. Despite being caught wide for the majority of the race, the pint-size Stephen Marsh trained filly kept grinding to down Ambience, with Believe running a bold race for third.
The race was marred by a fall on the home turn, when Kathy O’Hara crashed to the turf off Single Gaze as Damien Oliver pushed out on Jameka and took Happy Hannah into O’Hara’s line.
She was taken to hospital with a suspected broken right collarbone and concussion, while Single Gaze pulled up with minor abrasions.