Widden Stakes winner Queen Of The Ball will be nominated for next weekend’s Reisling Stakes but Sydney’s weather will determine if she lines up.
The youngster scored a scintillating victory on a good surface in the Widden two starts ago but struggled in the soft conditions when fifth as favourite in the Silver Slipper.
Co-trainer Michael Freedman said they had concerns about her in the wet pre-race and those were borne out on race day.
“She just didn’t handle that soft six going,” Freedman said.
“I was a little bit worried when we got the rain because Rachel (King) had trialled her at Warwick Farm before the Widden and said, ‘she trialled really well, but I don’t know that she’d need it too soft because she was skating a bit on that track’.
“When we got that rain and it raced like a genuine soft 6, and a bit chopped up later in the day, Rachel came in and said, ‘she felt fantastic, but when she had to let down she just hated that ground’, which a lot of ‘Vinnies’ (progeny of I Am Invincible) do.”
Randwick was a heavy 10 on Saturday and there is no sign of the wet weather relenting, at least in the early part of the week.
Freedman said he would nominate Queen Of The Ball for the Reisling Stakes (1200m) and monitor conditions as the meeting got closer.
The Magic Night Stakes (1200m) at Rosehill is also a possibility, although that would mean a seven-day back-up into the 2022 Golden Slipper.
“We just had to take our medicine and keep our fingers crossed that next week in the Reisling or the week after in the Magic Night that we can somehow get her back onto a firm track at some stage,” Freedman said.
“This time of year, we do tend to get a lot of wet weather and soft tracks but there is not much we can do about it. Sometimes it works in your favour and sometimes it doesn’t.”
There are nine stakes races at Randwick next weekend, highlighted by the Group 1 Randwick Guineas (1600m) and Group 1 Canterbury Stakes (1300m).
