Lady Royale will be the mistress of her own destiny this season with trainer Richard Collett happy to let the classy filly make her own running.
The daughter of Captain Rio has a nomination for the Gr.1 NZ Bloodstock 1000 Guineas at Riccarton and her Pukekohe handler is hopeful, but not yet confident, she can master the 1600 metres at Riccarton.
“Obviously, this is the year she could handle that against her own sex and I think she’ll get 1400 metres strongly enough, but I don’t know about a mile yet,” Collett said.The Gr.3 James & Annie Sarten Memorial (1400m) at Te Rapa on October 27 will therefore determine which path Lady Royale follows through the spring and summer.
“Sometimes you can stretch them out and the Sarten will tell us a lot – if she copes we’ll press on,” Collett said.“She’s a free-running filly, but in saying that when she won the Matamata Breeders’ Stakes last season she took a sit behind John Wheeler’s horse (Steel Rose) and finished off well.”
Lady Royale hasn’t raced since she won that fillies’ feature in February and will make her three-year-old return in Saturday’s Gr.3 Hawke’s Bay Breeders’ Gold Trail Stakes.“She hasn’t grown that much, but she’s always been a pretty athletic type and a natural early runner,” Collett said.
“She’s clean-winded and doesn’t take a lot of galloping. She’s come back well and initially I was looking at a race at Taupo, but decided to give her a trial at Avondale instead.“It was right-handed on a heavy track and she had a good blow out. She’s had a couple of good gallops since and, while she obviously lacks race fitness, she is forward enough.”
Lady Royale will be ridden at Hastings by Johnathon Parkes, who won on the filly at Te Rapa last season.
