High Quality Mares Tackle Cockram Stakes

Saturday's running of the Gr3 Cockram Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield sees a quality line up of ten mares highlighted by Gr1 winners Probabeel (Savabeel-Far Fetched, by Pins) and Instant Celebrity (Not a Single Doubt-Celebrity Girl, by Starcraft) set to kick of their Spring preparations. A winner of the Surround Stakes, Epsom Handicap and Futurity Stakes all at Group 1 level, the Jamie Richards-trained Probabeel is the current favourite, and although the 1200m may be slightly short of her best, the 5YO mare is unbeaten on the Caulfield circuit (se below), has a solid first-up record and has three wins from six attempts at the distance. The Philip Stokes-trained Instant Celebrity was a Group 1 winner over 1200m last season, and although she has a very good track and distance record, the mare is likely to be aimed towards the $2m Invitational (1400m) at Randwick in October and may not be right at her top first-up. Stokes indicated that the Mill Park foaled mare did not have a complete spell from training and was able to retain a lot of her residual fitness. "She's had a couple of jump-outs here at Pakenham, the second of them last Thursday," Stokes said. "We haven't set anything in stone as to her campaign and he haven't ruled anything in or out it just depends on what races we decide to target." While the top two are the class runners of the field, another who has impressed in recent jump outs is the Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young trained Rich Hips (Written Tycoon-She's Curvaceous, by Flying Spur) who has three wins from four first up attempts including success last campaign in the Gr3 Mannerism Stakes over 1400m at Caulfield.