Heatherlie Stakes First-Up for Tralee Rose

Tralee Rose (Tavistock-Star of Tralee, by Zabeel) holds nominations for both the Gr1 Caulfield (2400m) and Gr1 Melbourne Cups (3200m) but trainer Symon Wilde is eyeing the Gr3 The Bart Cummings (2500m) at Flemington on October 2 as her feature target of the spring. According to NZ Racing Desk, she finished her campaign with a fourth placing in the Gr2 Adelaide Cup (3200m), which in hindsight, Wilde said, may have been a race too far after a long campaign. "She is bigger and stronger and is coping with her work a lot better this time in," he told RSN927 of Tralee Rose who will have her pipe-opener in Saturday's Heatherlie Stakes at Caulfield. "She had quite a long campaign and she made a big rise. She went from winning a maiden to winning the Bagot, and the race over in Adelaide (Lord Reims Stakes). It feels to me that she is fully mature now and she will have her best campaigns as a 5 and 6YO. She will have to have made improvement. She was winning really well, but winning off-season races." The 5YO mare, who has finished top two in 8 of her 10 starts for earnings of $322,000, was purchased by Cameron Cooke Bloodstock for $50,000 out of the Cambridge Stud draft at the 2018 New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka Yearling Sale.

Bagot Stakes winner Tralee Rose (pic: Bruno Cannatelli)