As he looks forward to turning Invest into a dual Oaks winner in Brisbane next month, trainer Clarry Conners has even bigger aspirations for Dear Demi next season.
Invest’s win in the Australasian Oaks at Morphettville broke a five-year Group One drought for Conners.
The trainer’s ambitious plans for Dear Demi closely resemble the Classic season of Research, winner of the 1989 VRC Oaks and the 1990 AJC Australian Derby-Oaks double.
Those feats earned Research the Horse of the Year title and Conners believes Dear Demi can be every bit as good.
The John Singleton-owned filly ended her two-year-old season with a closing second to champion colt Pierro in the Champagne Stakes.
“I’m going to set her for the Victoria Derby-Oaks double and then the same in Sydney,” Conner said.
“I think she can be every bit as good as Research.
“I made a mistake with Research and ran her in the Wakeful in the lead-up to the Victorian Oaks.
“I won’t do that with Dear Demi. She will run in the Derby.”
Dear Demi is by Dehere out of unraced Zabeel mare Shirley and is owned by John Singleton for whom Conners trained the 2000 Golden Slipper winner Belle Du Jour.
Singleton has enjoyed a stellar autumn with the Gai Waterhouse-trained More Joyous who will be set on a Cox Plate campaign in the spring.
Her stablemate More Strawberries gave Waterhouse and Singleton another feature win when she claimed Saturday’s Darley Crown at Hawkesbury.
Invest travelled back to Sydney with a break at Conners’ son Heath’s Geelong property last week and will head north to try to complete the Doomben Roses-Queensland Oaks double.
The two races were won in 2001 by Ethereal in 2001 who went on to claim another famous double in the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups later that year.
Invest is raced by the Kelly family’s Newhaven Park Stud, the owners of two of Conners’ four Golden Slipper winners – Burst (1992) and Prowl (1998).
New Zealand Oaks winner Miss Artistic is favourite for the Queensland Oaks on June 2 with Invest a $10 chance.
