Cool Tart will become a valuable broodmare prospect if she can win the Gr. 3 Lawnmaster Eulogy Stakes at Awapuni tomorrow.
The Zabeel filly, to be ridden tomorrow by Jonathan Riddell, is a three-quarter sister to the dual Group One Melbourne Cup and Victorian Derby winner Efficient and closely related to the Windsor Park Stud sire Guillotine.
Cool Tart won a 1600-metre maiden well in her last start and opened as a $3.20 favourite for the Eulogy Stakes, which has drawn a field of 13 one-win fillies.
Cool Tart has impressed in her last two starts and was having her first run in blinkers when runner-up to subsequent Gr. 3 Wellington Stakes winner Tavago over 1600 metres at Te Rapa last month. She then returned to Te Rapa for her next start, in another three-year-old maiden, and won by almost four lengths.
“She probably should have won her last two starts and they have been her only starts with blinkers and her only starts at 1600m,” said trainer Roger James.
James will see how Cool Tart performs at Awapuni before making any ambitious plans for the filly. But there will be options if she races well, and she has Group One nominations for the Levin Classic, New Zealand Derby and New Zealand Oaks.
James, who has five Derby wins to his credit, also nominated The Hassler, Arundel and Von Tunzelman for the Ellerslie classic.
Von Tunzelman, a Zabeel colt, and Arundel have yet to race, but the latter was a trials winner this week.
Riddell has a good book for Awapuni where he will also ride another leading Cambridge hope, Show The World, a $2.30 favourite for the Capture Signs Manawatu Cup Prelude, and he will be reunited with Miss Selby in the rating 85 1600m.
- NZ Racing Desk
