Miss Cover Girl is primed for a first-up tilt at the Victory Stakes at Eagle Farm
Group One-winning mare Miss Cover Girl is primed for a first-up tilt at the Victory Stakes at Eagle Farm as she begins what will be her final racing preparation.
Saturday’s Group Two race over 1200 metres attracted just seven acceptances with Music Magnate the early favourite over Takedown.
Miss Cover Girl, who is rising six, has been a great performer for trainer Kelly Schweida and her owner Kevin O’Keefe.
Her best win was in last year’s Group One Tatt’s Tiara, which helped boost her career earnings to $832,900.
“She has been great for us and in particular the Tatt’s Tiara win,” Schweida said.
“But she is also a Sydney winner in stakes class and has picked up black-type on five other occasions with minor placings.
“All good things come to an end and this will be her last campaign. I would love her to go out a winner.”
Schweida said Miss Cover Girl had been entered in the catalogue for the Gold Coast Broodmare sale at the end of May.
“It is the right time for her to go. She is nearly six, she has won nearly a million dollars and she is fit in work,” he said.
Group One-winning mares rarely come up for sale in Queensland and Miss Cover Girl could obtain high six figures without surprising.
Miss Cover Girl hasn’t started since January but ran fourth behind another smart mare, Madotti, in a trial at Deagon last week.
“It was a solid trial but she has never been a flash horse at the trials. But she does handle wet tracks and she does go well fresh,” Schweida said.
Damian Browne, who won the Tatt’s Tiara on Miss Cover Girl, will ride the mare.
“Damian knows the track well and he will need to to the way it played at trackwork on Tuesday. It wasn’t good,” Schweida said.
The trainer will also saddle Oink resuming in the QTIS Three-Year-Old (1300m) on Saturday.
Oink, who is being set for races such as the Group Two Queensland Guineas, was not knocked about when second in a Deagon trial.
“He is going OK for his comeback but the only worry for me is his weight of 59 kilos. I was thinking about claiming but Paul (jockey Hammersley) knows him so well I decided to stick with a senior rider,” Schweida said.
