If Graceful Anna can provide David Pfieffer with a breakthrough Group One win in Saturday’s Coolmore Classic, the late Tony Wildman won’t be far from the trainer’s thoughts.
Pfieffer learned his craft working for Wildman for 15 years before the popular trainer lost his battle with cancer in 2008.
Graceful Anna propelled Pfieffer’s fledgling training career and he is hopeful the mare can become his first Group One winner in the $600,000 fillies and mares Rosehill feature.
“She has got a lot of things that you could say are close to the heart,” Pfieffer said of his stable star.
“One of the things would be with this race, the Coolmore Classic, my old boss Tony Wildman tried to win the Coolmore a few times.
“For her to win that would be great, but to win any Group One is going to be special, isn’t it?”
The closest Wildman came to winning the Coolmore was in 2002 when Gentle Genius almost chased down the mighty Sunline, finishing a close second to the great mare.
Pfieffer was on track as Wildman’s foreman that day and said Gentle Genius almost grabbing the champion mare as a $201 bolter was a moment he wouldn’t forget.
Graceful Anna put Pfieffer’s name up in lights when she won the $1 million Magic Millions 3YO Trophy at the Gold Coast in January last year.
She was his first Group One runner in last year’s Stradbroke Handicap (1400m) and he is looking for a better result when the mare becomes his second Group One starter on Saturday.
The four-year-old has finished runner-up at her past three starts in stakes company, including behind Triple Elegance in the Group Three Liverpool City Cup (1300m) on March 5.
“Each start she’s been proving she is very consistent,” Pfieffer said.
“She had to back up from week to week in the Liverpool City Cup and I thought it was quite a solid effort.
“Her work going into this has been good and she’s got a lot of things going for her this week including a good barrier (five).”
Pfieffer said the 1500m of the Coolmore was a slight concern but pointed to her victory over 1400m as a three-year-old when she defeated a top class field in the Magic Millions.
“There’s no reason why we shouldn’t give it a go in the Coolmore,” he said.
The winner of six of her 15 starts and more than $1 million in prizemoney, Pfieffer had the Coolmore Classic or Robert Sangster Stakes (1200m) in Adelaide as a Group One target for Graceful Anna this preparation.
“We just thought the Coolmore would probably be a bit classy with horses like More Joyous, Melito, Hot Danish, Sacred Choice, Typhoon Tracy we thought might have been there too, but a few of the bigger names have dropped away,” he said.
Only Melito from that list will line up in the 17-horse Coolmore field with the Gerald Ryan-trained mare topweight with 59.5kg.
“It’s still a very classy race but I think with the barrier and her form, she (Graceful Anna) is thereabouts,” Pfieffer said.
AAP TURF
