A clash between the best of New Zealand’s staying three-year-old fillies has been confirmed for the $550,000 Australian Oaks at Randwick on Saturday.
New Zealand Oaks winner More Than Sacred booked her Sydney ticket on the training track on Tuesday morning in preparation for an overdue showdown with the New Zealand Derby winner Habibi.
“She worked really well this morning and all going well over the next two days she will fly over on Thursday night,” trainer Tony Pike told AAP.
More Than Sacred and Habibi have been on different racing timetables during the season because of separate target races in their homeland.
“Our filly came through late in the season and while Habibi headed down the road to the Derby and we went to the Oaks,” Pike said.
Subsequent to their New Zealand campaigns, Habibi turned in one of the best Oaks trials with her Vinery Stud Stakes placing while More Than Sacred’s delicate body has been saved for a season finale with a month away from racing.
“She’s a lightly framed filly who doesn’t take a huge amount of work so the four weeks between runs isn’t a concern,” Pike said.
Randwick received 9mm of rain on Monday night, putting the track in the slow range after Saturday’s Australian Derby meeting was raced on a dead surface.
Pike says a rain-affected track for Doncaster day won’t be ideal for his filly but it doesn’t spell the end of her chances.
“She galloped between races last Saturday at Te Aroha on a slow track and she got through it OK,” he said.
“But all of her best form has been on firm ground so (a wet track) is a relative unknown for her.
“If there is a plus side, a slow track is going to make it more of a staying test and that will help her.”
Habibi finished third to Norzita in the Vinery and in the absence of the Bart Cummings-trained winner who will run in the Doncaster Mile, she is the $3.50 Oaks favourite before Wednesday’s acceptance deadline.
More Than Sacred is an $11 chance and is on fifth line of betting, just behind the Adrian Knox Stakes winner Royal Descent ($9) who will also be an acceptor.
