Peter Moody and Katherine Coleman have already won a Guineas with a filly at Caulfield this spring and they are favoured to land another this weekend.
The Pakenham training team put the polish on Sheza Alibi, the $1.70 favourite for Saturday’s Sandown Guineas.
The $400,000 event will be run four weeks after Moody and Coleman produced Ole Dancer to win the Group 1 Thousand Guineas and Coleman is delighted that Sheza Alibi has got to the 1600-metre Group 2.
Sheza Alibi was sent south from Queensland with a view to targeting the multitude of Black Type options on offer to three-year-olds throughout the spring and Coleman is excited about seeing her continue her progression in the Guineas and beyond.
“These fillies, you’re just always looking to build on their pedigree, so this is a brilliant opportunity to try and do that with her,” Coleman said.
“I think, in the autumn, she’s going to be probably a bit more furnished and a bit more mature and I certainly think that she’ll be in some of those nice races over the autumn.”
Sheza Alibi came to Victoria with four starts under her belt. Runner-up on debut, she broke her maiden at Rockhampton and then won the $100,000 Townsville 2YO Classic (1200m) before a second placing to Autumn Boy in the Listed Tatts Stakes (1400m) at Eagle Farm.
She finished third behind Tentyris and Raging Force in the Gothic Stakes (1200m) at her first start in Victoria before victory in the Group 3 The Vanity at Flemington on Derby Day.
The daughter of Saxon Warrior surged through the line to score by 1-3/4 lengths in that 1400m event, a performance that convinced her trainers she will relish the 1600m of the Guineas.
“The way she finished that race off and how well she came through it gave us the idea that we might look at her at the mile,” Coleman said.
“She’s given us every indication that she’s going to eat it up.”
Luke Nolen partnered Sheza Alibi to victory at Flemington at retains the ride in the Guineas with the pair to jump from the inside barrier in the field of 12.
