She looked a good thing on paper and that’s the way it panned out when Typhoon Tracy made a one-act affair of the Group 1 $400,000 Sportingbet Orr Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield on Saturday.
In a race which saw champion stayers
Shocking and
Viewed resume from spells, the
Peter Moody-trained mare always looked well placed with her exceptional record at the distance and track.
With
Luke Nolen in the saddle, Australia’s premier race mare sat second behind
Danzylum through a leisurely first 800 metres before rocketing over the last 600 metres in sub 33 seconds.
On the line the $1.40 favourite had 1.8 lengths to spare from
Heart Of Dreams ($6.50) with the
Bart Cummings-trained
Sirmione ($81) running a slashing race for third at his first appearance in a year.
Sirmione’s stablemate Viewed finished sixth, 6.4 lengths from the winner, whilst Shocking was two places and 1.3 lengths further back.
The Orr win was Typhoon Tracy’s eighth of an 11 start career and importantly for the four-year-old’s future breeding career her first against open company at weight-for-age.
“It’s nice to get that first one in open company out of the way,” Moody said.
“It’s her first time out of mares grade and the second and third horses are Group 1 weight-for-age winners so we never expected it to be easy and I think she’s still got nice improvement off that.
“It was a nice soft kick off to what is hopefully a fruitful preparation,” he added.
Nolen said the race went exactly to plan and echoed Moody’s thoughts that Typhoon Tracy would benefit from the match practice after what was her first appearance since November.
“She knows where the post is here. It was pretty leisurely the first half mile and we just showed up the last three (furlongs) so she’s done an excellent job,” Victoria’s premier jockey said.
The opening leg of the $US11 million Asian Mile Challenge, the $500,000 Rokk Ebony Futurity Stakes (1600m, Group 1) at Caulfield on 27 February, is her next target.
After the Futurity Moody has a bevy of options to consider for his glamour mare, including a trip overseas, but he won’t lock himself into any plans until after the Group 1 mile.