Things are about to get serious for Sheza Alibi.
The boom filly is nearing the end of her time in the Queensland sun and will soon resume her place at the Pakenham stable trainer Peter Moody operates in partnership with Katherine Coleman.
The daughter of Saxon Warrior headed north not long after her jaw-dropping win in the Group 1 Doncaster Mile and Moody said she had enjoyed her time off ahead of a potentially legacy-shaping four-year-old season.
“She actually travels home from Queensland next week,” Moody said from Flemington on Saturday.
“(It’s been) slowly, slowly. She’s done about seven weeks’ work up there and enjoyed it.
“There wasn’t a lot of developing to do, she just had to maintain her health and wellbeing and she’s done that.”
Sheza Alibi used the Sydney Autumn Carnival to push claims for recognition as Australia’s best horse with her 4-1/4-length Doncaster Mile win preceded by a maiden Group 1 success in the Randwick Guineas (1600m).
After a few weeks’ rest, she had a month pre-training before a three-week stint at Eagle Farm.
“Trot and canter for a month, just to put a base in them and the last three weeks she’s been in at Eagle Farm at our stable there,” Moody said of Sheza Alibi’s work to date.
“She’s done three weeks at three-quarter pace and she’s ready to have a gallop now.”
Moody said the spring plan for the Horse of the Year contender remains open, but he said early plans were being put in place with a view to a first-up run in the Group 1 Memsie Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield on August 29.
“She probably has a jumpout at the end of the month, trials the first or second week of August somewhere there and the Memsie’s at the end of August,” he said.
“That was the first possible (target) – I’m not saying that the one – but that’s the first option.”
The Memsie Stakes is run seven days after the Group 1 Winx Stakes in Sydney, the race most racing fans would like to see her resume in as it would result in a clash with fellow Horse of the Year contender Autumn Glow.
Sheza Alibi’s main aim for the spring is the $10 million Golden Eagle (1600m), which will be run over the course and distance of her two Group 1 wins on October 31, for which she is already an odds-on favourite.
