The Robert Heathcote-trained Ekaterina is a $7 chance in early markets for the Group 3 Vo Rogue Plate at Doomben on Saturday.
Ekaterina has started eight times for three wins including a dominant last start victory in a Benchmark race over 1400 meres at Eagle Farm on December 10.
“She’s going well and this is a big challenge for her against Stroll and some of the southern visitors,” Heathcote said.
“She’s out of a great family and has a lot to live up to.
“I’ve taken her along slowly so far and my biggest fear is the tempo of the race.
“She’s a lot like Startantes and likes to get back in her races and has a big finish.
“If there’s a bit of tempo on up front, she’ll be getting home strongly.”
A win would follow a family tradition of claiming black-type with Ekaterina’s half-sister Startantes, already proven at the highest level in the Group 1 Tatt’s Tiara at Eagle Farm in June.
Her mother Funtantes earned more than $704,000 in prize money during her career which included winning the Group 2 Champagne Classic at Doomben in 2009 and Listed Nudgee Handicap and Listed Juanmo Stakes.
Funtantes was a 10-time winner and is a daughter of Heathcote’s former top producing broodmare, Cantantes.
Cantantes was nothing special on the track, winning only two of her 37 starts but was a star in the breeding barn going on to be one of Queensland’s best broodmares over the past two decades.
Heathcote, a five-time Brisbane premiership winning trainer, has trained just about all of Cantantes’ off-spring before she passed away in 2018.
Funtantes has carried on the family tradition to be a success at stud as well as on the racetrack after also producing six-time winner Ziemba as well as an unraced Spirit Of Boom two-year-old Beautantes and an unnamed yearling full sister to Startantes.
Some big name three-year-olds have claimed the Vo Rogue Plate in past years including subsequent Group 1 winners Apache Chase, Alligator Blood and Lucky Hussler as well as former star sprinter Winning Rupert.
