It was third time lucky for Shamal Wind when she took out the Group One Oakleigh Plate at Caulfield on Saturday.
The daughter of Dubawi had finished unplaced in two previous outings in the Oakleigh Plate but relished a fast pace to take out the 1100-metre dash.
Trained by Robert Smerdon, Shamal Wind ($10) steamed down the outside to defeat stablemate Under Louvre ($17) by three quarters of a length with Fast `N’ Rocking ($18) a nose away third.
The win provided jockey Dwayne Dunn with his 16th Group One victory of which nine have come at Caulfield.
Smerdon said owners Rob and Donna Love had to pay top dollar for Shamal Wind but she now promises to be a valuable broodmare.
“In her whole career she’s going as well as ever and with mares their biological clock kicks in, but she’s got that tough resilient attitude,” Smerdon said.
“When these owners were looking I said to them they would have to be prepared to pay the price as the original owner was happy to keep her.
“The owners thought it would be fun to race her on and then send her to stud and now they’ve got a Group One-winning mare.”
Smerdon said both sprinters had been prepared for a first-up tilt at the race and was unlikely they would run in the Newmarket Handicap at Flemington.
“It was a target for both of them but I’m not too sure where we’ll go to now. She may go to Sydney, maybe for a race like The Galaxy,” Smerdon said.
Dunn said Shamal Wind, a winner of eight of her 24 starts, was deserving of her Group One success.
“She’s got that great acceleration,” he said.
“It was always a concern with the barrier where we were going to end up but she was terrific.”
