Multiple stakes winner Cool Passion will be on trial for her first crack at a Group One sprint when the seven-year-old makes her second appearance in Sydney in the Millie Fox Stakes at Rosehill.
Cool Passion returned from a spell in the Group Two Breeders Classic (1200m) for mares at Warwick Farm earlier this month and fought on gamely for a close second to Champagne Cuddles on a soft track.
The two will be rivals again in Saturday’s Group Two Millie Fox (1300m) for fillies and mares in which Cool Passion will meet Champagne Cuddles 1kg better.
“She was absolutely fantastic first-up,” McEvoy said.
‘She just raced a little bit fresh and then the favourite, who had had the benefit of having had a race this preparation, whipped around her and got past her. But then she really chased hard to the line and was fabulous.
“She has improved immensely with the run. She’s the one to beat.”
The Chris Waller-trained I Am Serious, winner of the Angst Stakes at the end of her last preparation, has been installed favourite as she begins a campaign aimed at the Group One Coolmore Classic.
“She has trialled impressively and worked well over the past seven days,” Waller said.
“She should get a lovely run from her good draw and I am looking forward to getting her through to the Coolmore in three weeks’time and hopefully going into the Coolmore with a win next to her name.”
The Coolmore Classic (1500m) is restricted to fillies and mares but McEvoy has other ideas with Cool Passion who has never been stretched beyond 1400m.
“I’m not sure that I want to go that far,” he said.
“I might go to the Canterbury Stakes with her after this, the Group One over 1300 metres.”
The weight-for-age Canterbury Stakes is at Randwick on March 9.
