The Hawkes Racing team was expected to be celebrating a feature win at Flemington on Saturday.
It just wasn’t meant to be with Tavarnelle.
Tavarnelle’s superstar stablemate All Too Hard was to start an odds-on favourite in the Group One Australian Guineas but was a shock race morning scratching due to an elevated temperature.
It left Tavarnelle as the only Flemington runner for the Hawkes team in the Group Three Frances Tressady Stakes (1400m) and she duly won to brighten the spirits of co-trainer Wayne Hawkes.
“It was a weird feeling driving in to Flemington today but it’s amazing how everything happens. And it’s a good result, this one,” Hawkes said.
Tavarnelle did have some support, firming from $17 to $12, and sat outside the leader Sheila’s Star ($3.50) before edging her out in the run to the line to win by a short-head.
Koonoomoo ($6.50) came in another short half-head away in a blanket finish.
Tavarnelle only arrived in Melbourne on Friday morning to race on a dry track rather than a heavy surface in Sydney.
Hawkes felt the mare was going to be “seriously hard to beat” and said anything else would now be a bonus for the daughter of Zabeel.
“She’s a Group winner now,” he said.
All Too Hard is set to head to Sydney for races during the autumn carnival but Hawkes said there there was no decision on his next start.
“You’ve got to get the horse right now,” he said.
A routine check of All Too Hard’s temperature on Saturday morning revealed it to be slightly elevated.
“In the human terms he’s got a cold. For a 20-plus million-dollar colt we can’t take the risk,” Hawkes said.
“If we hadn’t taken his temperature this morning you wouldn’t have known. He licked the bin and looked bright as a button and looked absolutely normal.”
