Bridal Waltz secured what co-trainer Peter Moody considered a bonus Group win at Caulfield on Saturday and he is optimistic she can continue to rise through the grades.
The well-bred Snitzel filly made it back-to-back Black Type wins with a win in the $200,000 Group 3 Bletchingly Stakes (1200m).
It followed victory in the Listed Creswick Stakes (1200m) at Flemington on Finals Day, which Moody and training partner Katherine Coleman thought would be her final start of the campaign, and is now a winner of five of her 12 starts.
“Now she’s made herself a valuable little girl, she’s a multiple Stakes winner, Stakes-placed and it’s been well-deserved,” Moody said.
“I’ve thought for her last couple of run she probably goes for a spell, but we’ll probably take her home and rinse and repeat; give her a week down the beach, reassess and have a look.
“It’d be nice to lift the bar a little. Do we find a mares Group 2 or something like now we’re a Group 3 winner, or we have a few weeks off and come back at Flemington in November and chase a little Stakes race there away from the A-graders?
“But, you never know, she might become an A-grader one day the way she’s going.”
Bridal Waltz ($4.60ef) again showed her customary speed to take up a forward position outsider leader and last year’s winner Recommendation ($6), who she reeled 150m from home before digging deep late to hold off the unlucky Kin ($5).
That mare was held up until 250m from home and charged late but missed by a half-neck at providing James Cummings with a farewell feature win as Godolphin Australia head trainer.
Third, three-quarters-of-a-length behind Kin, was Yellow Sam ($6).
“Initially I thought he (Recommendation) was going to go a little bit slower than I would have liked, so I stayed out there and just forced him to come up inside me and go the tempo I wanted to go,” winning jockey Ben Melham said.
“It worked out well for us. He got going before the corner, but I had a little weight turnaround on him and she was too good.”
Melham denied not only Cummings, but also the premiership-hunting Craig Williams, who logged his second second placing of the day aboard Kin.
Williams did celebrate a victory, aboard Stylish Secret in the fourth event, but still trails Blake Shinn by seven wins with just one metro meeting remaining after Shinn was able to take out the first event aboard Ole Dancer.
