Lara Set to be Unleashed in Australia

ANZ Bloodstock News' Paul Symes reports:

Unbeaten filly Lara Antipova (Russian Revolution) will make her Australian debut in Saturday’s Quezette Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) as the Mark Walker stable looks to lay down an early marker ahead of a spring which is already brimming with promise.

With her fellow Group 1 winners Belle Cheval (Savabeel), Seize The Day (I Am Invincible) and Geegees Mistruth (Wordsmith) as well as comeback queen Bellatrix Star (Star Witness) all set to step out in the coming weeks, assistant trainer Ben Gleeson was full of cheer and optimism on Monday morning despite the torrential rain in Melbourne. 

Lara Antipova, who was foaled and raised at Vinery Stud before being acquired by Te Akau and Fortuna Racing’s John Galvin for $100,000 at last year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, brings an unblemished juvenile record with her across the Tasman but she faces an early acid test of her mettle in what is shaping up as a strong renewal of the Quezette.

The three-year-old fillies’ race has a habit of producing future stars – the recent rollcall of winners includes Charm Stone (I Am Invincible), Bella Nipotina (Pride Of Dubai) and Sunlight (Zoustar) – so if the daughter of Newgate’s consistent performer Russian Revolution (Snitzel) can make a triumphant Australian debut, she might just be the real deal. 

An impressive jumpout win at the start of the month, when she cruised past stakes-placed colt Buggsy (Harry Angel), confirmed to her conditioners that the filly had fully acclimatised and was firmly on track for her first-up assignment under Mick Dee.

Given that her dominant victory in the Matamata Breeders’ Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) came on a Heavy 9 track, she should not be overly perturbed by the wet weather sweeping across Victoria and the prospect of a Soft surface at Caulfield.  

While admitting that Lara Antipova – one of three Group 1 winners for her sire – has bigger targets in mind and so is unlikely to be at peak fitness on Saturday, Gleeson is nonetheless confident that a top-three finish is well within her capabilities.

      “The whole team is very excited to see what this filly can do,” Gleeson told ANZ News. 

“The Quezette is usually a very hot race so we’re expecting to be taking on a very deep field of fillies at Caulfield on Saturday, which will give us a very good early measure of whether or not her New Zealand form can stack up over here. Her recent jumpout was excellent, so that gave us the confidence to know that she’s on the right track.

“Like a lot of our horses heading into the spring, a wet weather in Melbourne means that she’s probably a little bit underdone in terms of her grass gallops. But she’s got a good base fitness on her so I do think she can be very competitive and if she could finish in the top three, we’d be thrilled with that. 

“Like all these fillies and mares, the main aim is to get some black type on her page and although she’s already achieved some great things in New Zealand, to really enhance her value she’ll probably have to do the same over here in Australia. We’ve got it right with a lot of horses coming over, but we’ve also had a few misses along the journey. Her performances last season in New Zealand would certainly suggest that she’s more than capable of making the step up, so hopefully she’s the real deal.”  

Interestingly, having initially earmarked the filly for a sprinting campaign geared towards the Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m), Gleeson and Walker appear to have changed tack after genetic testing revealed that she may be more adept over a mile.

Lara Antipova’s dam Artistic Lass (Myboycharlie) won over 2200 metres and the mare’s sire is best known in the southern hemisphere as the father of Jameka, who won the 2016 Caulfield Cup (Gr 1, 2400m) for Ciaron Maher. 

So while dual Group 1-winning sprinter Russian Revolution undoubtedly injected plenty of pace and precocity into her legs, a stout staying pedigree on her dam’s side suggests that a race like the Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) would be well within Lara Antipova’s distance range. 

“We’re still a bit up in the air with her preparation but we should have a better picture after she runs on Saturday,” he told ANZ News.

“At this stage we’re most likely looking at a Thousand Guineas preparation. If you look on her dam’s side, you’d have to think that she should get out to the mile without too many issues and we did some genetic testing which revealed she was a C:C long. 

“Once we get her to a Thousand Guineas Prelude, we’ll probably have a much better idea over whether or not she gets a mile, but we haven’t quite figured out her program up to that point. She gets a Group 1 penalty which means she’ll have to carry 59 kilos in the Quezette on Saturday, that’s quite a big ask for a filly so we’ll just have a look at the programme to see if we can find some weight relief for her.”  

Of the Cranbourne operation’s remaining spring stars, Gleeson is eagerly anticipating the set of jumpouts scheduled to take place at Caulfield on August 19, when Seize The Day, Geegees Mistruth and Bellatrix Star will ramp up their respective preparations. 

Like Lara Antipova, beautifully-bred colt Seize The Day brings some impressive form with him from New Zealand, winning the Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) on the same day that his stablemate Belle Cheval proved she is more than capable of holding her own in Australia having taken out the Vinery Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) during Sydney’s autumn carnival.

    "But she’s got a good base fitness on her so I do think she can be very competitive and if she could finish in the top three, we’d be thrilled with that" - Ben Gleeson

Seize The Day, a full-brother to Group 3 winner California Zimbol, will kick off his Australian adventure in the McNeil Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) at the end of the month, before being aimed either at the Coolmore or stepping up the mile in the Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m); while the newly-minted Group 1 Golden Eagle (1500m) will be the main aim for Belle Cheval.

In the more immediate future, last-start Robert Sangster Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) heroine Geegees Mistruth and Bellatrix Star will both get their seasonal campaigns underway on Saturday week in the Moir Stakes (Gr 1, 1000m), which this year moves to Sandown.

“We think both those mares can come out and stamp themselves as Group 1 sprinters this spring,” said Gleeson, who was also looking forward to the respective returns of stakes-placed filly I Am Aria (I Am Invincible) and Melody Belle’s daughter Lyrics ‘N Song (Written Tycoon) at Bendigo on Wednesday.         

“Geegees has already got her Group 1 on the board, but Bellatrix Star may have a slight fitness edge after she resumed with a great effort [second] in the Sir John Monash Stakes last month at Caulfield. She’s a remarkable mare, she missed a whole year after fracturing her neck and then when she came back we had to remove some fetlock chips, so she missed another six months.

“The vets said it’s a miracle how well her neck healed because after it happened, we never thought we’d see her back at the races again. So for her to come through all that, she’s clearly a very tough mare and she looks absolutely amazing at the minute, her coat is just glowing.

“We’re very excited about what’s to come with her and the rest of the team, it’s probably the strongest hand we’ve ever had here at Cranbourne heading into the spring. We’ve got at least ten horses that are minimum metro class horses, and hopefully some if not all of them can put their hands up and progress to become stakes horses.”