HAWKESBURY colt Tenbury Wells will gallop on the course proper on Monday morning before heading south for a crack at Group 1 glory on Saturday.
And leading trainer Brad Widdup has booked Melbourne ace and 30-times major winner Blake Shinn for the $2m Victoria Derby (2500m) at Flemington on the opening day of the four-day Melbourne Cup carnival.
Tenbury Wells and stablemate Noises will be floated to Melbourne on Monday night.
Widdup has been pleased with Tenbury Wells’ progress since his fifth to subsequent Group 1 Spring Champion Stakes winner El Castello (and likely Derby rival again) in the Group 3 Gloaming Stakes (1800m) at Rosehill Gardens on October 12.
He gave some thought to starting the colt in the Group 1 Spring Champion and then backing him up a week later at Flemington, but decided against it.
“Tenbury Wells is in great order, and his final gallop on the course proper will have him ready for the Derby,” Widdup said on Sunday.
“You never know for sure whether they will handle the 2500m as an early three-year-old, but I feel he will.
“Blake was keen to take the Derby mount, and I’m sure he will give Tenbury Wells a great ride.”
Tenbury Wells has a real Victoria Derby pedigree.
His dam Dowager Queen was runner-up (to Mosheen) in the 2011 VRC Oaks (also 2500m at Flemington), and her sire Savabeel was runner-up (to Plastered) in the 2004 Derby a week after beating older horses in the Group 1 Cox Plate (2040m) at The Valley.
Widdup is returning to the scene of his maiden Group 1 triumph with Icebath in the Empire Rose Stakes (1600m), also on the opening day of the 2022 Melbourne Cup carnival.
Whilst Tenbury Wells is a son of Fastnet Rock, the colt’s part-owner, John Cordina’s Summertime Thoroughbreds, has already tasted Victoria Derby success with Ace High (now standing at stud in New Zealand) in 2017.
Widdup has also confirmed plans to run Microphone three-year-old Noises in the Group 1 Oaks at Flemington on Thursday week.
Noises wasn’t disgraced when eighth (beaten less than four and a half lengths) to El Castello in the Spring Champion Stakes.
“She had to work for nearly 600m to get to the front, then was taken on when Flying Argento made a mid-race move,” Widdup said.
“Noises battled on and is a real trier, and will be better suited against her own sex.
“She has pulled up well from the Spring Champion, and her owners are keen to run her in the Oaks.”
. Three-times Victoria Derby winner Hugh Bowman will ride at Saturday’s Flemington meeting, and reconnect with leading Newcastle trainer Kris Lees.
Bowman will ride Infancy for Lees in the Group 3 Furphy Sprint (1100m) for mares four-year-old and upwards.
Now based in Hong Kong, the jockey of four-times Cox Plate winner Winx has had great success for Lees at the Melbourne Cup carnival.
He won both the Group 1 2008 VRC Oaks on Samantha Miss, and 2016 Cantala Stakes on Le Romain.
Story John Curtis, October 27, 2024
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