The old firm of Yosei and jockey Michelle Payne continued their amazing comebacks to claim victory in the season’s final Group One, the Tattersall’s Tiara at Eagle Farm.
Payne, 25, who suffered neck fractures in a fall at Caulfield in February, hadn’t ridden Yosei on race day since the pair finished unplaced in last November’s VRC Oaks at Flemington.
Payne came to Brisbane to ride Yosei trackwork leading up to Saturday’s 1400-metre feature but didn’t expect to get the luck in running to enable the three-year-old to edge out Darley’s Beaded by a half-neck.
Born To Rock filled the minor placing a further half-length away.
“She’s an amazing filly,” Payne said.
“I had one or two horses behind me coming to the home turn and the runs just kept opening up.
“It was a dream come true.”
Payne’s victory on Yosei was the fourth Group One of her career and her third win at the elite level on the daughter of Invincible Spirit.
“I won the (2009) Toorak Handicap on Allez Wonder for Bart (Cummings) but to win three on her is unbelievable,” Payne said.
“I spent four months on the sidelines after the fall at Caulfield when I fractured the C2 vertebrae in the Blue Diamond Prelude (in February),” she said.
After the Thousand Guineas, Yosei was disappointing in the Myer Classic and VRC Oaks and was later found to need surgery for a knee problem.
Trainer Stuart Webb sent Yosei to Queensland for the winter carnival after she ran a close sixth in her comeback in the Listed Straight Six at Flemington in May.
Despite failing in the Group Two Dane Ripper Stakes at Eagle Farm earlier this month, Webb never lost faith in his filly.
“That’s my third Group One win and they’ve all been with this filly,” Webb said.
“It was a terrific ride from Michelle and everything went to plan.
“The filly had to have a knee operation after the spring and she’s put in on the day when it counted.”
Webb said he had studied speed maps of the Tattersall’s Tiara before the race and was concerned when Yosei was so far back.
“I had looked at the speed maps and coming to the turn I thought they were going too hard up front for her,” Webb said.
Webb said he would nominate Yosei for the Group One Cox Plate at Moonee Valley in October but the Group One Myer Classic would be a more realistic goal.
Trainer Peter Snowden offered no excuses for Beaded’s defeat and will recommend she be retired to stud after winning the Group One Doomben 10,000 and finishing second in the Group One Stradbroke Handicap this winter.
“She ran a great race. The speed was on and she was travelling all the way,” Snowden said.
“I’ll have a talk but I favour tipping her out now.
“She’s done the job and she always punches above her weight.”
AAP TURF
