Walsh Bay, who demolished her opposition in arrogant fashion in Saturday’s Toowoomba Cup, will now target the Listed Queensland Cup at Eagle Farm on October 11.
The Toowoomba Cup victory was the four-year-old mare’s fourth successive win and her fifth win in six starts in her near perfect latest preparation (she finished second in the only start in which she was beaten).
These five wins saw her progress in leaps and bounds, stretching her winning race distance from 1200m to 2000m along the way while also increasing her race winning margin from 0.10 lengths to the 3.13 length romp at Toowoomba.
Her career has produced an impressive fifty-percent strike-rate (seven wins from fourteen starts) and she has won on both heavy and good going.
All of that opens up many doors for the daughter of Deep Field moving forward with options aplenty. Given the way Walsh Bay took care of business over 2000m at Toowoomba, pushing the envelope to take on the 2400m of the Queensland Cup and learn more about Walsh Bay’s prowess is a natural enough step.
“The Toowoomba Cup was an afterthought to be fair,” explained co-trainer Corey Munce. “It was never our intention to go there, but the way she won at the Gold Coast (a month out from the Toowoomba Cup), continuing to go through the grades pretty well … we had a look and saw that she was pretty well in the weights for the Toowoomba Cup and she had a few less miles in her legs than most of the field.
So, we made the call … and didn’t she win with such authority!
“I think she is certainly more effective at that mile-plus range. She just travels very comfortable. If anything, she just has to be reminded a couple times throughout the run to stay with them. She just does what she has to … and that’s all she does.
“If you watch her, as soon as she hits the winning post, she just pricks her ears and says ‘job done.’
“She is a horse that doesn’t like too much time in the paddock. She loves being in the stable and loves getting the daily attention. She just loves stable-life. On the track she is very versatile. She seems to like most tracks.
“She’ll go to the Queensland Cup now, in two weeks-time. That’s 2400m. That’s another test.”
While her four wins in-a-row as a four-year-old have captured attention, it is worth noting that Walsh Bay did show promise early on winning two of her three starts as a two-year-old.
Walsh Bay’s form then marked time in her first five starts as a three-year-old between October to December 2024 … one third place finish being her best result during that period … and she was then given a six-and-a-half month break from race action.
When she came back in, she was ready to go.
Things would be very different.
“Any sort of form reference for her last prep you may as well just put a line through it,” continued Munce. “She is certainly a different horse this time around.
“We wanted to give her a good break because she never came up last prep … for whatever reason.
“When you think about it now with this mare getting up over distance, the fact that she was really off the bit in a lot of those runs, we don’t know whether or not that took its toll … but we’ve worked her out now.”
Walsh Bay boasts a race record of seven wins from fourteen starts, with two minor placings and $286 400 banked in prize-money.
