The Lindsay Park trained Futooh is a chance to return to Randwick next Saturday for the Group 1 Champagne Stakes after finding her winning form again in the Listed $150,000 China Horse Club Mile (1600m) on day two of The Championships at Randwick today.
Futooh, above in blue colours, wins the Chine Horse Club Mile at Randwick for the Lindsay Park Team. Photo by for Steve Hart.
Futooh had won one race from five starts before today and co-trainer Ben Hayes said that he and the rest of the Lindsay Park Team, David Hayes and Tom Dabernig, will see how the filly pulls up before committing to running her in next week’s Group 1 $500,000 Moet & Chandon Champagne (1600m).
“We will see how she pulls up. There is an option of backing up but we will let her tell us,” Ben Hayes said.
Hayes said that different riding tactics today that saw Futooh settle in the second half of the field were devised after the filly faded in the straight last start after being ridden more aggressively.
“We were a little bit critical of the ride a couple weeks ago where she was driven out of the barriers and probably just didn’t finish off,” Hayes said.
“Today Jason was excellent, he rode her that ten per cent negative from the barrier and then she really had that turn of foot.”
“We have always had an opinion of her and it is just nice to see her once she gets out to a mile running so well.”
Winning jockey Jason Collett had Futooh ($8) travelling smoothly back in the pack and in the straight the Sebring filly was able to weave in between runners back towards the inside to dive through to record a long neck win over her stablemate Musswellbrook ($9) with a length back to the $4.80 favourite Aristocratic Miss in third position.
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