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Vet check for Celebrity Queen, Kemalpasa scratched
Flit (Medaglia d’Oro) will be out to give Godolphin and James Cummings back-to-back victories in the Newmarket Handicap (Gr 1, 1200m) when she lines up in the Group 1 at Flemington on Saturday.
The famous Godolphin blue colours were carried to victory in the Newmarket by Bivouac (Exceed And Excel) 12 months ago and he was nominated for the race, but after being allotted 58.5 kilograms in this year’s renewal the Godolphin team felt it was too great a task.
To give Godolphin a little more confidence, the four-year-old daughter of former shuttler Medaglia D'Oro (El Prado) may have drawn ideally, barrier 17, in the 18-horse field, with the outside rail being advantageous in recent meetings.
Flit was tried as a middle-distance galloper early in her three-year-old season, being successful in the Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) before running fourth in the Wakeful Stakes (Gr 2, 2000m).
More recently though Cummings has kept Flit to short-course racing and importantly the mare has been successful over Saturday's course and distance, winning the Thoroughbred Breeders' Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) in March 2019.
"She won the Thousand Guineas as a three-year-old, but her best results have been in shorter races, including her defeat of Alligator Blood in the Silver Eagle last spring," Cummings said.
"She has also won down the straight at Flemington as a two-year-old and she had excuses when resuming behind Savatiano in the Expressway."
One of Flit’s rivals, Celebrity Queen (Redoute’s Choice), will have to pass a vet inspection on Saturday morning if she is to take her chance in the Group 1, after the Grant and Alana Williams-trained mare pulled a shoe in the lead up to the Group 1.
Co-trainer Grant Williams reported to Racing Victoria stewards the mare had pulled her left front plate during the week and was slightly short in her action late on Thursday.
Celebrity Queen showed no signs of lameness on Friday morning, but Williams will continue to monitor the mare.
Williams said Celebrity Queen had been attended to by a farrier and had missed no work in the lead up to Saturday's race.
RV vets will inspect the mare on Saturday morning prior to the 7.30am scratching time.
Meanwhile, co-trainers Richard and Chantelle Jolly were forced to scratch Kemalpasa (Magnus) from the Group after he was found to have a stone bruise on Thursday.
The stable said that it was now the intention to run Kemalpasa in the William Reid Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) on March 19 before a potential trip to Adelaide.
