Matt Laurie will make a rare foray to Sydney in a bid to test unraced filly Mount Dove
Victorian trainer Matt Laurie will make a rare foray to Sydney in a bid to test the Magic Millions credentials of unraced filly Mount Dove.
A half-sister to stablemate and dual stakes placegetter Bay Thirteen, Mount Dove has emerged as somewhat of a surprise packet for her trainer, who wasn’t expecting her to be an early-season juvenile.
“I didn’t really view her as a two-year-old, but she has shown enough and handled the workload enough to give her a start,” Laurie said.
“We thought Randwick being a big track would be a nice place to debut.
“I can see her developing into a really nice horse in time.”
It has been a decade since Laurie last had a youngster promising enough to consider for feature races, that horse being The Travelling Man who won the 2012 Blue Diamond Preview before finishing sixth to Samaready in the Group 1 Blue Diamond Stakes.
While next month’s Magic Millions Classic (1200m) at the Gold Coast isn’t a hard target for Mount Dove, it is a race that connections will aim towards if the filly can measure up on Saturday.
“We’ve got her in that. It’s not the be-all and end-all, but if she happened to run really well, it’s there and it would be hard to not make the trip,” Laurie said.
Laurie also nominated fellow Magic Millions hopeful Chilled for Saturday’s race but decided against paying up, instead opting to split his juveniles and send Chilled to Queensland to run at the Sunshine Coast on Sunday.
Mount Dove will be ridden by Chad Schofield and faces a small but select field of seven rivals headlined by the Peter and Paul Snowden-trained duo of Snapback and Achlys.
Achlys finished fourth at her only start in the Gimcrack Stakes, while Snitzel colt Snapback, an $825,000 Magic Millions purchase, makes his debut off the back of two barrier strong trial wins.
Coincidentally, Snapback is a full brother to Wee Nessy, who beat Mount Dove’s half-relation Bay Thirteen in the Listed Crockett Stakes at Moonee Valley in October.
