Saturday’s Gr.2 Windsor Park Stud Soliloquy Stakes (1400m) raised as many questions as it answered in terms of the Gr.1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas (1600m), but the one thing the Ellerslie feature proved is the star quality of Alabama Lass.
Heading into this weekend, Alabama Lass was the $3 equal favourite alongside Captured By Love for the 1000 Guineas at Riccarton on November 16. The 1600m distance was Ken and Bev Kelso's only reservation around contesting the Christchurch classic, and the Matamata trainers hoped the step up to 1400m on Saturday would give them some valuable guidance.
Alabama Lass was sent out as a $1.30 favourite for the Soliloquy and widely expected to win with ease. She duly delivered, but it was anything but easy.
The daughter of Alabama Express was drawn widest of the nine runners, but quickly overcame that disadvantage with a brilliant burst of speed out of the gates. Within the first 100m, she was two or three lengths in front of the field and had comfortably crossed to the rail.
Jockey Sam Spratt gave the favourite a brief breather coming down the side of the track, then began to up the ante again just before the turn. Alabama Lass straightened for home with a commanding lead, and she was still well clear coming into the final 200m.
But then she began to drift towards the outside and lose momentum, while last-start winners Kitty Flash, Love Poem, Sexy And I Moet and Hitabell warmed into their work just behind her.
The margin rapidly shrank in the final 75m as Kitty Flash and Love Poem came with big strides and got closer and closer, but Alabama Lass found enough to hold them out by just over a length.
The TAB reacted to the win by making Alabama Lass an outright $2.40 market leader for the 1000 Guineas, while she also now shares $4 favouritism alongside Crocetti for the Gr.1 Sistema Railway (1200m) on January 25.
The Kelsos saddled three-year-old filly Bounding to beat older sprinters in the Railway in 2014, and the late scare in Saturday's Soliloquy prompted Ken Kelso to consider a similar path with Alabama Lass.
"She really can ping the gates and put herself forward, and she did that today," he said. "It's pretty hard running into that headwind down the straight, so she probably was entitled to knock up a little bit in that last bit.
"But we are going to give serious thought about whether we go to Riccarton or not. We've got other alternatives, and the Railway is one in particular that I'm thinking about.
"Seeing out the mile is definitely a concern that we have in terms of the Guineas. She's a real speed freak.
"Maybe she wasn't as dominant today because she drew out wide and had to do that work early, and that headwind may have been another factor. We'll let the dust settle and work it out."
Spratt saw today's race differently and believes Alabama Lass can master the 1600m in next month's 1000 Guineas.
"She was explosive out of the gates," Spratt said. "I was pretty much on the fence within the first 50m.
"She didn't corner the greatest, and then she was a bit of a rascal and tried to go bush down the straight. This was her first time racing that way around, so hopefully she'll learn from it.
"If she hadn't run out, I think she would have won easily. She wasn't coming to the end of it at all. I think it was just the fact that she was running out. If she'd kept going straight, she would have trotted in.
"I don't think she'll have a problem with the mile. She settles so well in her races and is really push-button.
"Sticking to racing the other way around, like down at Riccarton, might suit her a bit better at the moment as well."
Saturday's Soliloquy placegetters Kitty Flash and Love Poem did their own 1000 Guineas prospects no harm, and the TAB now rates them equal third favourites at $6.
Kelso bought Alabama Lass for A$120,000 as a yearling in Melbourne in 2023. Her five-start career has now produced four wins and a second placing, earning $234,750 in stakes.
Previously the winner of last month's Gr.3 Gold Trail Stakes (1200m) at Hastings, Alabama Lass has now won both of the first two legs of the NZB Filly of the Year Series and holds a clear lead on the table with 14 points. The 1000 Guineas is the next leg and is worth 12 points to the winner.
