Ken Kelso’s flying mare Alabama Lass didn’t win the Group 1 Moir Stakes at The Valley on Saturday after being run down late by Baraqiel, but that was about the only box the Kiwi mare did not tick with her brave on-speed run.
“I thought she was home,” Kelso lamented moments after the four-year-old mare was grabbed late. “But we wanted to test the waters and find out how good she was and where she sat at weight-for-age. I think she certainly passed the test. Craig (Williams) just said she raced a bit fresh.
“It’s a fine line going in fresh, but he thinks we should hang around for the Manikato. She’s had a look around it now and he thinks the 1200m should be right up her alley. It was a big run today as all the speed horses dropped out and she kept going.”
WATCH: Alabama Lass’ Moir run
REPLAY – Racing.com
Alabama Lass took her record to six wins and four second placings from her 10 starts with her Moir run and according to Kelso, put herself in a prime position to pick up a G1 in the Manikato Stakes over 1200 metres back at The Valley in three weeks.
“I said I would only give her a light spring, so the Manikato and then home,” he said. “It’s a fair gap to the Champions Sprint (at Flemington in November) so we might go home for good sprint races there and then set our sights on coming back for the big autumn sprints over here.
“She should have been unbeaten until today, where she got beaten fair and square. She’s never finished further back than second.”
Kelso knows a little about star sprinting mares as he trained G1 Railway Stakes (NZ) winner Bounding, who also won in Australia before being sold to the United States.
She made headlines in 2019 when her Curlin colt sold in Kentucky for a whopping $A6.4 million.