Consistent mare Prompt Response finally got her Group One win on Saturday and could now have a change in training routine with a slot in the $13 million The Everest in mind.
Ridden an aggressive race from a good barrier by Blake Shinn, Prompt Response ($4.20) dashed away to a 1-1/4 lengths win over Shillelagh ($14) in the Tatt’s Tiara (1350m).
Unlucky mare Super Cash ($10) was third a half head back.
The Tatts Tiara was the last Group One of the Australian season and there could be no more apt winner than Prompt Response who has been unlucky at that level.
She had run second in the Queen of the Turf to Alizee during the autumn and headed north where at her last start she had finished second to Invincibella in the Group Two Dane Ripper Stakes at Doomben.
It was one up on last year when Prompt Response won the Dane Ripper and then finished second to Tycoon Tara in the Tatt’s Tiara.
The win gave the Gai Waterhouse-Adrian Bott training partnership its third Group One of the season.
Bott said if any of their horses deserved a Group One win it was Prompt Response.
“We decided to ride her aggressively and dictate the race to them. When Daysee Doom went around us to lead she had the run of the race,” Bott said.
“She is a top class mare and now she has the extra statistic to show it.”
Bott said Prompt Response had been trained to handle extra distances this campaign.
“It is because that was the way the races panned out at longer distances. But I would now like to train her as a purely speed horse and look at a place in the The Everest. I think she would be up to that race.”
The Everest will be run at Randwick on October 13.
Prompt Response lifted her prize money to nearly $1.5 million.
Shinn, who rode his fifth Group One win of the season and his third winner for the day, was full of emotion after the win.
“I intended to be aggressive and not let them dictate to me. It worked out well,” Shinn said.
Michael Walker, who rode Shillelagh, said to finish so close was a great run.
“She was off the bit the whole way and Invincibella didn’t pull me into the race and to finish off as strongly as she did was huge,” Walker said.
Jamie Kah said her mount Super Cash had been beaten by the bad barrier.
