Casino Bay trounces rivals in Pat O’Shea Plate

Casino Bay trounced her opposition in the Pat O’Shea Plate at Toowoomba. The supporting feature race on the King Of The Mountain card has traditionally been run as the first two-year-old race of the season in September but it, along with The King Of The Mountain itself, were both moved to this March 28 fixture to coincide with the holding of the Toowoomba Royal Show at the nearby Showgrounds venue.

Casino Bay, the Mark Currie trained daughter of Anders, simply took no prisoners under a commanding ride by Kyle Wilson-Taylor, who asked his mount to take the race by the scruff of the neck soon after the start before shaking his rivals into submission.

It might have taken Casino Bay ($9.50) all of the first 200m to reach the lead from the number four barrier as two of the runners to her inside, Financially Famous and Geitz, also pushed forward strongly early, but once in the prime position, Wilson-Taylor made his intentions quite clear as he turned the race into a ‘catch me if you can challenge’

Casino Bay takes the 2025 Pat O'shea Plate at Toowoomba, giving Kyle Wilson-Taylor a double today! 🙌@RaceQLD pic.twitter.com/ICSlBqaeMR

— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) March 28, 2025

By the 800m mark Casino Bay was a length-and-a-half clear of Financially Famous. By the 600m mark Casino Bay had strengthened her position to lead by two-and-a-half lengths … and she continued to travel strongly to the home turn, where Wilson-Taylor angled her out four wide for the run home.

And there would be no let-up from the frontrunner. Casino Bay remained strong and committed all the way to the line to score from the $21 outsider Sweet Pretender a little bit more comfortably than the one length winning margin suggests.

Sweet Pretender, certainly did catch the eye on debut though. The William Kropp trained chestnut had finished second to Casino Bay in a recent barrier trial, beaten by 1.27 lengths, so the race basically replicated that trial result. The difference in race experience, as slight as it was (Casino Bay had one run prior to this contest, where she finished as a close-up beaten favourite on debut) arguably also gave Casino Bay an edge.

The race favourite, the Kevin Kemp trained Pink Vixen, finished in third place, two lengths behind the winner.

A daughter of Brave Smash, Pink Vixen, who had earned the ‘hot favourite’ tag (she started at the restrictive odds of $1.80) courtesy of a strong win on debut which she followed up with an even more impressive runner-up finish in the $500 000 QTIS Two-Year-Old Jewel), was made to work from her number eight barrier draw.

She raced in the second half of the field early, giving Casino Bay some six lengths start … and the was obliged to track wide all the way to the home turn where she cornered seven wide, still four lengths adrift of the lead.

With Casino Bay not stopping, reeling her in became too hard a task for the favourite, who did run on solidly enough to claim that third spot, two lengths back, without ever looking likely to seriously trouble the winner.