2016 Queen Elizabeth Stakes - Lucia Valentina In The Right Place

Trainer Kris Lees says his glamour mare Lucia Valentina is “where she needs to be” for her Queen Elizabeth Stakes mission on the second day of The Championships at Randwick on Saturday week.

Lees said Lucia Valentina had done exactly as he had wanted in finishing second to Provincial Championships contender Supreme Effort in an 1100m trial on the Beaumont track at Newcastle on Tuesday.

Supreme Effort took up the running and travelled well within himself in the lead while Lucia Valentina’s rider Andrew Gibbons eased back to last from an outside barrier before making up ground down the running.

The winner clocked 1.08.65, breaking 34secs for the last 600m (33.54) so there was plenty of merit in the mare’s strong finish to be beaten just under a length.

“I was very happy with her trial,” Lees said. “She is exactly where she needs to be getting ready for 2000m in the Queen Elizabeth.

“It’s now a matter of keeping her ticking over. She will have her final gallop either next Monday or Tuesday morning.”

Melbourne ace Damien Oliver reunites with Lucia Valentina in the $4 million Queen Elizabeth.

Oliver has ridden the New Zealand-owned mare only twice and both races were over the Queen Elizabeth distance.

He won the G2 Matriarch Stakes on the mare at the Flemington carnival last November and then flew to Hong Kong to ride her in the G1 Hong Kong Cup at Sha Tin in December.

She ran “out of her skin”, finishing fifth to record-breaking Japanese front-runner A Shin Hakari.

Lees likes to space Lucia Valentina’s runs and has started her only once since returning from Hong Kong.

With James McDonald up, she was a late closing fourth to Peeping in the G1 Coolmore Classic (1500m) against her own sex at Rosehill on March 12.