It took the colt many now consider Australia’s best three-year-old sprinter to beat My Gladiola in the Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes and Jamie Mott is understandably upbeat about her chances in Saturday’s Thoroughbred Club Stakes.
The John Mcardle-trained daughter of I Am Invincible drops back to fillies grade for the 1200-metre Group 3 at Caulfield.
This weekend’s edition will be the first running with a $1 million purse and My Gladiola’s regular rider said the timing could not be better for the John McArdle-trained filly, who was beaten 2-1/4 lengths by Tentyris on Day 1 of the Melbourne Cup Carnival.
“She’s a good-doing filly – a big, strong thing that has always bounced out of her races really well,” Jamie Mott said.
“When this race was put on and was worth a million bucks, if she pulled up well out of the Coolmore they were always going to have a look at it, and she has come out of the Coomore really well.
“She’s going there 100 percent.”
No one knows My Gladiola better than Mott, who has partnered her in all seven career starts, which have generated six top-two finishes.
Her only unplaced effort was an eighth placing in this year’s Group 1 Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m).
The $550,000 Inglis Easter yearling’s wins were a debut success in the Group 3 Blue Diamond Preview (1000m) and Listed Cap D’Antibes Stakes (1100m) at her second start this campaign.
My Gladiola has encountered unfavourable barriers in several starts, including barrier one in the Coolmore Stud Stakes, and she came up with the same gate for Saturday’s race.
Mott was much happier to draw gate one at Caulfield than at the top of the Flemington straight.
“It’s quite a big field, so obviously, if you’re drawn out, you need a lot of luck anyway, so we know she’s going to get a good cushy run,” he said.
“We just need a bit of luck getting out.”
My Gladiola opened the $2.15 post-draw favourite for the Thoroughbred Club Stakes, in which last Thursday’s Group 3 Red Roses Stakes runner-up Inkaruna (barrier seven) is considered the main danger.
