Red Tracer has begun her autumn campaign the same way she has for the past three years with victory in the Group Two Millie Fox Stakes.
This time around, there was a difference with the six-year-old going into Saturday’s race as a dual Group Two winner and topweight in the fillies and mares’ feature at Rosehill.
Red Tracer - Photo by Steve Hart
She has continued to thrive since winning the Myer Classic in the spring and stamped her authority inside the final 200 metres.
The $1.60 favourite handled the wet conditions with her usual aplomb to beat A Time For Julia ($10) by 1-3/4 lengths with Lucky Lago ($26) another long neck third.
Red Tracer’s Chris Waller-trained stablemate Royal Descent ($4) ran home late for a pleasing fourth.
Waller said he was still not sure of the path Red Tracer would take this autumn with her goal the Queen Of The Turf Stakes on April 19 before a possible trip to England.
“I’m pleased to see her come back and we will sit down and look at how to get to the Queen Of The Turf,” Waller said.
“It’s at the end of the carnival and we don’t want to gut her too early.
“She won’t race in the Coolmore. She will get too much weight but the Queen Of The Turf is weight-for-age.
“And the dream is to take her to England and maybe France. There is a nice race for her in France at the end of July.”
While Red Tracer will be missing from the Coolmore, it is a race Waller has earmarked for Royal Descent.
“It is the right race for her and that race will tell us whether we head to the Doncaster,” Waller said of last year’s Oaks winner.
Red Tracer’s jockey Nash Rawiller described the win as a soft kill and said he was thrilled with her performance.
“She was very dominant,” he said.
“All indications were she would go well but until they do it on race day, you never know.
“It was beautiful.”
