Connections of Let’s Fly will give serious consideration to paying the late nomination fee for the Queensland Oaks after the filly made a mess of her Randwick rivals to post a runaway win.
Trained by Richard and Will Freedman, Let’s Fly ($31) raced handy to the speed throughout and was still under a chokehold at the top of the rise before apprentice Braith Nock let her loose.
Skipping through the heavy conditions, the three-year-old bounded clear to take out Saturday’s Chalouhi Handicap (1800m) by 5-3/4 length over She’s A Dealer ($10) with Hurstville Zagreb ($4.20 fav) battling to the line for third another long head away.
Will Freedman admitted he didn’t enter Let’s Fly for the Oaks as he felt the race would come too soon but after Saturday’s dominant performance, he was more than happy to reconsider.
“I know the question will be, ‘will we go to Queensland?’ We will make that decision in the next week or so,” Will Freedman said.
“Her half-sister, who is Mimi’s Award, won over 2800 and 3200 so there is definitely pedigree to run over a trip.
“But she has come to hand a lot quicker than I thought. I thought an Oaks was way too ambitious but she has beaten them like a good thing.”
The stable had thought highly enough of Let’s Fly to run her in the Group 1 Thousand Guineas (1600m) in the spring and Freedman said she’d had genuine excuses when beaten in Midway grade at her two previous runs this campaign, both on rain-affected ground.
She went into Saturday’s race on a seven-day back-up, a recipe he felt staying-type fillies responded to especially well.
“We were confident that she’d get through it (heavy track). The week back-up for these middle-distance horses, particularly three-year-old fillies, seems to work well,” he said
“I thought she ran really well last week. She over-raced for the large majority of it and we thought, on a heavy track and a week back-up she might settle better.”
Connections have until Wednesday to pay a $3600 first late nomination fee for the Queensland Oaks (2200m), or they can opt to wait until the final late nomination deadline of June 3 which will set them back $15,300.
The feature is at Eagle Farm on June 7.
Co-trainer Roger James said runner-up She’s A Dealer performed admirably despite not enjoying the heavy conditions and he remained keen to press on with plans to get her to the Oaks – provided she made the field.
“What we will do is prepare her here and then go up Wednesday night before the Oaks,” James said.
“If she doesn’t make the field, she will get on the plane to go home but if she does then we will take her to Brisbane.
“She’s a high-class filly, we like her a lot, but we have only ever seen her on much better tracks than this.”
