Star New Zealand filly Alabama Lass has made a successful hit and run mission to Melbourne with victory up the straight at Flemington.
A winner of five of her eight starts on home soil, with a further three seconds, Alabama Lass led throughout to claim the Listed HKJC World Pool Sprint Classic (1100m) on Saturday.
A heavily backed 2.50 favourite under Craig Williams, Alabama Lass scored a half-neck win from Gallant Son ($41) with Rich Dottie ($13) a half-length away third.
Prepared by Ken and Bev Kelso, Alabama Lass was taken straight to the front by Williams who admitted the filly did get a little lost in the run before the crowd helped the filly pick up and get her over the line.
“It might have been what inspired her because she went from not spending any energy and I thought, ‘this is perfect, she’ll just picked up’, but she just seemed to be so lost,” Williams said.
“She wanted competition, she wanted energy from the crowd and that’s obviously what go her over the line in the end.
“She’s really showed how good she is over there beating their best horse, an older horse, and she’s only a three-year-old filly, and I was really fortunate and delighted to get the call up and ride her.
“It was a great race for her to come over for. They’ve brought the right product over and didn’t waste anyone’s time.”
The Kelso’s are no strangers to winning races at Flemington, capturing the 2023 Australian Guineas with Legarto.
It was following that victory the Kelso’s ventured to the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale to purchase Alabama Lass.
Kelso said Alabama Lass would return to New Zealand for a well-earned rest, and he hopes to return in the spring for some of the rich sprint races.
“She tries really hard, and she relaxes early in her races,” Kelso said.
“She’s really fast but she just drops the bit and just lobs along so she doesn’t exert a lot of energy.
“We’ll get her home now and think about the future. There could be some nice sprint races here in the spring, but we’ll take a breath and just get her home.
“She deserves a little spell, she’s been up for a while, but it’s onwards and upwards from there.”
