Peter Moody has seen enough of Quickster to say that despite her double-figure odds she can still mix it with the more fancied chances in the Group 1 Thousand Guineas at Caulfield on Saturday.
Approaching the $1.5 million 1600-metre feature at her third start, the filly by Cox Plate-winning sure Shamus Award lines up as the only one yet to break her maiden status.
“I would love to have given her a kill in a maiden already but I’ve basically treated her as if she won at her first start,” Moody told RSN.
“A few of them have been to the races a bit more than her.”
Quickster was a slight firmer in markets on Friday morning from $16 to $15 with online bookmakers and beginning from barrier three goes to Caulfield following a fourth placing in the Group 2 Fillies Classic (1600m) at Moonee Valley won by Skybird on October 28.
“She got held up in traffic there,” Moody said of The Valley outing.
“Billy (Egan) went looking for runs and the winner got the run on the inside courtesy of a very good ride.”
Expecting Quickster to settle midfield from the mile start, she could also earn Moody’s first Group 1 victory since pairing with training partner Katherine Coleman.
“She’s certainly got the ability to be mixing it with these fillies but it just comes down to whether she’s got the racing nous,” he added.
“She’ll run extremely well but it will be just a matter if she’s got the street smarts, really.”
The Mike Moroney-trained Coeur Volante and Skybird – trained by Mitch Freedman – share favouritism at $4.20 and Moody isn’t discounting the quality of those horses in particular and the task ahead for a filly yet to see the winners’ circle before a three-year-old classic like this.
“I’m very respectful of the opposition when you hear a trainer like Mike Moroney saying that his filly could be one of the best he’s trained,” he said.
“Mitch Freedman’s filly is going super but my filly won’t be far at all.”
Billy Egan retains the ride on Quickster on Saturday.
