Stephen Autridge has already made one smart move this week, which has set him up with a stronger hand to play in Saturday’s fillies’ feature at Ellerslie.
The Matamata trainer had fortunately withdrawn Livid Sky from Wednesday’s Gr.2 Lowland Stakes (2100m) at Hastings, which subsequently fell foul of the weather and was abandoned.
Livid Sky will now line up the pre-post favourite in the Gr.3 McKee Family Sunline Vase (2100m), in which she will be joined by her talented stablemate Still Bangon.
“Both my fillies are well and I pulled the right rein by not going to Hawke’s Bay,” Autridge said.
“Looking at it, I thought Ellerslie was the better option for Livid Sky and that’s why I had pulled her out.”
Proisir’s daughter Livid Sky stepped up to a middle distance for the first time at Pukekohe when third in the Gr.2 Sir Patrick Hogan Stakes (2050m) and filled the same placing in the Gr.2 David & Karyn Ellis Fillies’ Classic (2000m) at Te Rapa where she copped an interrupted passage.
Still Bangon won the Gr.3 Eulogy Stakes (1600m) at Awapuni three runs back and then came from last to finish runner-up in the Sir Patrick Hogan on New Year’s Day.
At her most recent appearance, the Satono Aladdin filly was well off the pace in the Fillies’ Classic.
“It was too big a space between runs for Still Bangon at her last start,” Autridge said.
“I couldn’t give her enough work and she was a run short, so hopefully she’s back on target.”
Matthew Cameron will take the mount on Still Bangon at Ellerslie where she is at $16 in pre-post betting while Sam Weatherley will continue his association with the $3.50 market elect Livid Sky.
“Still Bangon has beaten the other filly every time they have clashed before that last run, so I guess they put the line through her,” Autridge said.
“She has worked well and looks great and I think they are very hard to split.”
Both fillies hold nominations for the Gr.1 Al Basti Equiworld Dubai New Zealand Oaks (2400m) at Trentham on March 16.
Autridge is confident Livid Sky, whose brother Lauding was a last-start middle distance winner at The Valley, will handle the Classic distance while Saturday is D-Day for her stablemate.
“We are at the stage now where we are going to find out, one way or another, whether Still Bangon is going to stay,” he said.
“She is from a sprinting family, but everything about the filly indicates she will stay. We couldn’t get a true line on her at her last start and she can be forgiven for that.”
Still Bangon has a speed-based pedigree and is out of the Le Bec Fin mare Shebang, who was successful on five occasions up to 1200m while her sister Elle Tresor was also a short-course performer with three sprint successes.