Blue Diamond Goal for Sebring Filly
Qatar Bloodstock celebrated a valuable Black Type win with promising Sebring filly Thurlow, who scored a thrilling nose win in the Listed MRC Merson Cooper Stakes at Sandown on Saturday.
A close second in the Group III two year-old fillies race at Flemington on Cup Day, the Robert Smerdon trained Thurlow atoned with a strong finishing win that will see her aimed at the Group I MRC Blue Diamond Stakes in the autumn.
Winning rider Craig Williams was always confident Thurlow would get there, but the win was not without a few anxious moments for the hot favourite.
“She had a lot of new horses around her and she’s new herself, so she got a little bit unbalanced,” he said.
“Today I was confident late she was going to get them. I only gave her a couple of hard smacks and every time I asked her for a bit more, she gave a bit more. I loved the way she closed out today.”
Smerdon will send Thurlow for a break but she will return early next year for a possible crack at the Blue Diamond.
“She’s come a long way. She’s handled it really well and you’d like to think in the autumn she might be a Blue Diamond-type filly,” Smerdon said.
A $150,000 Inglis Easter purchase from the Widden Stud draft for David Redvers, Thurlow was also bred by Widden and is the first foal of stakes-winning King’s Chapel mare Princess Emmy (NZ), who has a Northern Meteor yearling filly and was covered again by Sebring last spring.
Thurlow is the 11th stakes-winner for Sebring, who is the most represented sire at the 2015 Magic Millions.