Black Caviar Lightning Stakes (Group 1)

JOHNNY Allen saves his best for Flemington, as proved in Saturday’s Group 1 Black Caviar Lightning Stakes over 1,000m.

Taking the mount on the Mitch Freedman-trained Skybird, Allen and the Exophere filly were sent out at the ‘visitors’ price of $26 despite being a dual Group 2 winner and placed at that level in two of her previous four starts.

The star three-year-old colts Switzerland and Growing Empire dominated the market but neither could match Skybird when Allen let her down. Patiently ridden at the tail of the field, with rain having reduced the surface to a ‘soft 7’, Allen lined up a gap and asked for her effort approaching the 200m mark.

Such was her acceleration, she hit the front with 100m to run, blitzing the field by a length. The Harry Angel filly Stretan Angel ran well for second ahead of the Hellbent mare Benedetta, who just shaded Switzerland with Growing Empire back in seventh.

“I couldn’t believe how well I was going,” said Allen, who was having his first ride in the Lightning.

Own path

“I was following Switzerland, halfway up the straight I was going to stay on his back and try and follow him through, but I was going that easy I just had to come off and try and find my own path.

“She quickened up and put the race to bed very quickly. To be honest, from about the halfway mark she just felt like she couldn’t get beat. I had a bit of a barren spell in the Group 1’s the last couple of years, so it’s good to get one up the straight here at Flemington.”

The win was Allen’s first Group 1 since the Robert Sangster Stakes in 2023 on Ruthless Dame.

Bought for A$110,000 from the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale, Skybird has franked her future. “We’ve always thought that she’s a sprinter and we’d get back to these trips once she matured up and she knew what her job was.

“She’s been super throughout. The plan is to go to the Newmarket and then the William Reid Stakes,” said Mitch Freedman.

THE Snitzel filly Lady Shenandoah provided the first leg of Group 2 double for Chris Waller at Randwick on Saturday, winning the Light Fingers Stakes over 1,200m in impressive fashion. With ground to make up on straightening, Lady Shenandoah swept past last year’s Golden Slipper winner Lady Of Camelot to win comfortably by a length with a greater margin to the third-placed Justify filly Lilac.

“Lady Of Camelot is no slouch to try and run past in the concluding stages and she seems to have done it with a bit in hand,” said assistant trainer Charlie Duckworth. “She gets up over a lot further than the 1,200 so to do it first-up, she is going to take a world of beating next start.”

The Waller stable completed their double 35 minutes later when the six-year-old Sebring mare Fangirl nudged her earnings to A$71,000 shy of $9 million with a win in the Apollo Stakes over 1,400 metres. Waller used this race three times for three wins to launch Winx’s autumn campaigns with Fangirl having now won the past two editions. Waller filled the first three positions with the Lonhro gelding Lindermann running second ahead of the Cox Plate hero Via Sistina who just shaded Ceolwulf.

“It’s very satisfying as she’s been a good horse for a very long time,” said Duckworth. “She’s a jockey’s dream, she doesn’t pull, she’s a quirk free horse and an absolute darling to have in the camp.”

ROBBIE Downey travelled to Cairns in Northern Queensland last weekend as part of a plan to reboot his riding in New South Wales.

Having taken 10 rides in the 11-race card at Cairn’s Cannon Park for the father and son combination of Trevor and Peter Rowe, Downey landed one winner and had three placings.

Importantly he was able to take a number of rides at 55kgs, the lightest he has been since last August when at 54.5kgs for an unplaced ride in the Cairns Cup.

“I was really heavy there for a while and my weight was not going well so I took about six weeks off and I was really working on it,” said Downey. “I will be riding 55kgs this Saturday. I have been basically training twice a day for the last four to six weeks and it is coming off great.

“I decided to take a step back and get it down as light as I can so I can go to the races happy and healthy. I still love it here in Australia, it is a great place.”

This current season 28-year-old Downey has posted 13 winners from 120 rides on the New South Wales country circuit.

ALSO from Queensland, Co. Meath’s Siobhan Rutledge broke through for her first winner in January and has since ridden two more, to have a tally of three wins from 24 starts, her most recent being Chief Witness at Beaudesert on February 16th. All three of her winners have come from the stable of Chris and Corey Munce who she transferred to from John McConnell.