It was the start of a sensational hour for the Yulong team when Treasurethe Moment, their homebred daughter of their own foundation stallion Alabama Express, notched a historic Oaks double with victory in the Gr.1 Australian Oaks.
Trained by Matt Laurie, the 3-year-old filly faced a field of just eight opponents on Saturday at Randwick’s starting gates, and she settled back in the field, letting Sun ‘N’ Sand (Pride Of Dubai) dictate the pace up front. On the home turn, the filly made her move, starting to wind up alongside Gr.1 New Zealand Oaks winner Leica Lucy (NZ) (Derryn) – but her turn of foot was too good for the rest of them.
Clocking 33.93s for the last 600 metres in the 2400-metre event – faster than Via Sistina’s time in the 2000-metre Queen Elizabeth and just a fraction slower than the Gr.2 Percy Sykes Stakes – Treasurethe Moment stormed home to win her eighth consecutive race and third career Group 1.
The last filly to achieve this historic double was Serenade Rose (Stravinsky {USA}) in 2006.
“I was pretty nervous about today,” Laurie said. “I mean, a small field and often they can be a bit kind of messy. It was sort of slow to watch. (She) didn’t have a great deal of cover at times, was on the wrong lead. Then they all came off the turn. She was under siege.
“We haven’t seen that for a while and to see her dig deep in the concluding stages – just an incredible effort and I couldn’t be prouder of the horse and the team to help get it to this point. She had to really fight back on the inside down at Sandown one day, so I knew she’d keep coming.
“Her work’s just been incredible. The last month has been unbelievable. I’m not sure whether we’ll be coming to this sort of distance range anytime soon. Damian (Lane) will give us a good guide on the following preparation, but I’m obviously just a bit emotional about the last few months.
“You have a plan, but you don’t expect things to go the way you dream. To have it work out the way it has for us is just unbelievable. We had four races mapped out for her to win, and to do it is just amazing.”
Jockey Damien Lane was pleased with the filly’s tenacity, saying, “she ended up knuckling down when it counted, just those real good special horses do, just find a way.
“I was hoping more than anything, and with 100 metres to go, she knuckled down and when those in front were getting tired, she just found the line.”
Treasurethe Moment is the third and last foal from Draconic Treasure (USA) (Street Cry {Ire}), whose close family includes globetrotting sprinter-miler Rich Tapestry (Ire) (Holy Roman Emperor {Ire}), who won stakes races in the United States, Dubai, and Hong Kong. Treasurethe Moment’s older sister Kind Treasure (Frankel {GB}) is in foal to Alabama Express this season.
Written for TTRAusNZ
