Mac attack essential if Waller is to have Elleegant sufficiency in Winx Stakes

August 20, 2021 â€" 1.06pm

James McDonald would win on a broomstick at present, but broomsticks don’t flop out of the barrier like a bag of manure nor throw their head around contributing to an unhappy ending, points to ponder regarding Verry Elleegant in Saturday’s Winx Stakes at Royal Randwick.

Due to her behaviour, Verry Elleegant, our best horse last season, is hardly fragile unlike, at first glance, Kathy O’Hara, who has reached a significant milestone.

Jockey James McDonald kisses Verry Elleegant after winning the 2020 Winx Stakes.Credit:Getty

Perhaps in recent weeks the class of the current racehorses has been questioned but not this group 1 1400m sprint, crowdless but worthy of attendance stimulated by the champion about which race was named.

Verry Elleegant is no Winx but the attraction of taking on worthwhile opposition makes the present chapter very strong indeed, better than the corresponding event last year when the warhorse showed remarkable resilience to score.

With a reasonable smooth getaway and manners becoming, the situation 12 months ago, the mare was able to win by an eyelash from Star Of The Seas, a $34 outsider today.

Yes, from the 800 metres she was high, wide and anything but handsome, described by the racecourse broadcaster Darren Flindell as “doing some work”. However, while Verry Elleegant was flowing, Imaging was in a traffic snag near the rail, later bounced around in turbulence up the straight, before going down by a half-length. Today, the gelding has a return bout, with O’Hara again navigating, and is a worthy rival as well as seasoned Group one horses plus the four-year-old Mo’unga with the improvement factor.

Jockey Kathy O’Hara, onboard Imaging, looms as a big threat for Verry Elleegant.Credit:Adam McLean

Thus it’s going to take another McDonald pearler, and he’s produced a few in recent weeks, to triumph by keeping Verry Elleegant happy and carefree. Not the situation when she was beaten a half-length to the world class Addeybb in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick last start in April that carried the line in Best Bets “too keen early”.

Also, trainer Chris Waller is considering the Melbourne Cup with Verry Elleegant again this year, prompting the question of whether, a season older, she will have the sprinting zip for today’s distance?

The odds, of course, come into play with any race, be it a weight-for-age spectacle at Randwick or a Louth maiden out west in the vicinity of Bourke, prompting the recollection of O’Hara.

Back in 2004, wise guys on the bush circuit were impressed with a promising lass at a stage when female jockeys were thin on the ground.

I missed the San Domenico, running next Saturday, for Louth to see how good she was. Certainly, having a drink with the late John Lundholm and Rodney Robb, who has travelled farther and wider than another other trainer, was an added attraction.

Around 17, O’Hara showed ability but was so angelic, a vision that flashed when she superbly guided her 1000th winner on Cameron Crockett’s Commando Hunt at Kembla Grange last Saturday.

A decade after Louth I kept a clipping from my must-read local, “The Beast”, which interviewed the jockey.

“What does it feel like getting trampled by a horse at full pelt?”

O’Hara: “You just get knocked unconscious most of the time, though the one that ran over me and broke my hand, I didn’t initially know it broke my hand. When I fell I landed on my back and that wasn’t too bad. Then it went whack, straight over me and I got up and I thought it was dislocated, but it wasn’t, there was bone poking out.”

“The fall where you cut your head was described in the media as being quite a horrific incident. They said you could have died …”

O’Hara: “The jockey that ran me over thought he killed me … I still love what I’m doing.”

But to the business end of Winx Stakes. I’m rusted into the fighting heart and final thrusts of Verry Elleegant but $3 yesterday is too short. The fingers of JMac again hold the key. For the punt, a trifecta: box Imaging, Think It Over and Verry Elleegant.

Sports news, results and expert commentary. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.

Max Presnell is a columnist.

Share this post