Golden Rose runner-up Speak Fondly will spearhead a team of up to four runners for Gai Waterhouse in the Group One Flight Stakes.
A dominant winner of the first two legs of the Princess series, Speak Fondly will go into the fillies feature at Randwick on Saturday three weeks after her Group One second to Exosphere.
Waterhouse confirmed the Silver Shadow and Furious Stakes winner would be joined in the race by the consistent Kimberley Star who will be ridden by Hong Kong-based Joao Moreira.
Moreira has been lured back to Sydney’s biggest day of the spring by Godolphin which has booked him to ride Malice in the Group One Epsom Handicap and Havana Cooler in the Metropolitan.
Waterhouse said Sempre Libera was also in line for a Flight Stakes start after her first-up fourth to Pearls in the Tea Rose Stakes while Saturday’s Reginald Allen Quality runner-up Flamboyant Lass could back up into the Group One if she pleases the stable during the week.
“She can only be bigger and better for it,” Waterhouse said of Flamboyant Lass after her second to bush filly Alart at Rosehill.
“She will probably go to the Flight but I haven’t decided completely, I will just let the dust settle.”
Godolphin will be represented in the Flight Stakes by Pearls who will have No.1 jockey James McDonald in the saddle.
He will also be aboard Sweynesse for Sheikh Mohammed in the Epsom Handicap and Magic Hurricane in the Metropolitan.
Alart’s trainer Pat Farrell said it was unlikely the filly would return to Sydney from Muswellbrook for the Flight with the Brian Crowley Stakes two weeks later a more realistic target.
