A brilliant all the way first up win by Pippie at Doomben last Saturday has opened up the door for a 2019 Spring Carnival campaign.
Pippie was unplaced behind Sunlight, above, in last year’s Quezette Stakes at Caulfield. Photo by Ultimate Racing Photos.
Pippie was sent out as the well-tried $1.50 favourite and didn’t let her backers down with a better than expected return to the race track with a three and a quarter lengths win in the 1200m Fillies and Mares No Metro Wins Handicap for trainers John and Chris Meagher.
The father and son training partnership will now give Pippie a short break before setting her for some tougher assignments during the Spring.
“She’ll spend some time at the owner’s farm and then she’ll come back to Melbourne and be aimed at some Stakes races across the carnival,” Chris Meagher told racing.com.
“She was having her first crack at 1200m yesterday (Saturday) and did it well so off that, we’ve got a nice choice of races between 1200m and 1400m in Melbourne.
“She’s the sort of filly that we’d like to keep her runs spaced.”
Pippie made it two wins from only four starts at her first run since running seventh to Sunlight in the Group 3 $150,000 Winslow Group Quezette Stakes (1100m) at Caulfield in August last year and Chris Meagher is confident that the Written Tycoon filly will take the next step up in the early stages of her four year old year in the Spring.
“In the back of our minds we were hoping she could do something like that first-up, although she probably won better than I thought she would,” Meagher said.
“It was a no metro win race so we’re not getting too carried away but if she is going to measure up to some nicer races in Melbourne, she needed to be putting them away quite comfortably.
“Now that she’s got that under her belt and she’s come through it well, we can back off her a touch before we bring her to Melbourne.”
The Group 3 $160,000 W.W. Cockram Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield on August 31 is a likely Spring Carnival springboard for Pippie.
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