Thousand Guineas winner Stay With Me’s workload has been stepped up as the impeccably bred filly builds towards her autumn campaign.
By Street Cry, Stay With Me emulated her dam Miss Finland by winning the Thousand Guineas in October.
Stay With Me
Whether the David Hayes and Tom Dabernig-trained Stay With Me is seen in Melbourne this preparation or campaigns solely in Sydney remains to be seen.
“She’s at the farm at Euroa and she’s just started fast work,” Dabernig said.
“It’s a little bit up in the air what her first run might be but she’ll probably kick off in early February. It may be first-up in Sydney or we’ll kick her off down here in Melbourne and then go up.
“She’s in great order, she’s jumping out of her skin.
“She looks a bit more furnished and big and strong. She’s had the break so there’s no reason why she shouldn’t have improved.”
The $1 million Randwick Guineas is her likely Group One target rather than the $750,000 Australian Guineas in Melbourne on the same day in March.
“I think that will be the main target race,” Dabernig said.
The filly is raced by her breeder John Messara of Arrowfield Stud and the other owners of Miss Finland.
Messara is also the chairman of Racing NSW and the architect of The Championships in Sydney in April.
Stay With Me took a little longer to become a Group One winner than her mother who claimed the first of her five in the 2006 Golden Slipper.
Stay With Me’s spring campaign came to a close after the Thousand Guineas with her sixth in the Group One Myer Classic at Flemington when she raced wide from the outside barrier in the 15-horse field.
