In her first test outside of restricted grade, Within The Law (Lucky Vega {IRE}) has landed a valuable Group victory, mowing down race favourite Bellazaine (Zousain) to nab the Gr.2 Sweet Embrace Stakes in the final stride at Randwick on Saturday. Having raced exclusively in events for Inglis sales graduates, the $30,000 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale purchase has now built upon her previous $500,000 earnings from the R. Listed Inglis Banner and R. Listed Inglis Nursery with $172,000 towards securing a place in the Golden Slipper.
A strong tempo was set by Bellazaine and debutante Wootton Lass (Wootton Bassett {GB}), who raced ungenerously under Nash Rawiller. Meanwhile, Jason Collett snagged the filly to the rear, where she was momentarily posted three wide over the first few furlongs before finding cover third last. Coming round the home bend, Collett began a wide searching run, while Bellazaine booted clear at the head of proceedings. It appeared the race was all but over, but a late surge saw the electrifying filly snatch victory from the Tulloch Lodge-trained favourite by 0.01l, with 0.76l back to Snitzel Miss (Snitzel) in third.
“That was phenomenal,” Bjorn Baker’s racing manager Luke Hilton said.
“In the run, nothing went right. She couldn’t have got any further off the track and to just see her keep coming, I still didn’t think she was going to get there halfway down the straight. She’s been like this the whole time through, she’s got so much heart and she doesn’t know how to run a bad race.
“It’s exciting for her, she’s a really lovely filly. And to put her hand up today and get a run in the Slipper, before today she had zero prize money (for the Slipper) unfortunately, but now she goes there as a live chance.”
Darby Racing won the 2017 Golden Slipper with $20,000 filly She Will Reign (Manhattan Rain) and were heaped with praise post-race.
“Darby Racing are phenomenal,” Hilton said. “They just back up all the time finding these horses. They just do a wonderful job and she was just a $30,000 purchase.”
Collett made it a juvenile feature double in the saddle, and now has some decisions to make regarding who he will stick with in the Gr.1 Golden Slipper on March 22.
“It’s nice to be in that position,” Collett said.
“They’re a couple of nice horses and she just keeps lifting the bar. She had a lot of work to do there and nothing went right from the get-go, really, but she still managed to come out on top.”
Within The Law winning the Gr.2 Sweet Embrace Stakes
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Gallery: Images courtesy of Georgia Young Photography
Bred and consigned by Yulong for the 2024 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale, Within The Law is the first foal of Contract Signed (Dundeel {NZ}), who is a granddaughter of the multiple Group 2 winner So Gorgeous (Brief Truce {USA}) and belongs to the family of Kementari (Lonhro). Contract Signed was acquired in 2021 for $30,000 through Inglis Digital by Yulong. She has a yearling colt by Tagaloa and returned to Lucky Vega (IRE) last year after slipping to Written Tycoon.
Within the Law has marked a remarkable commencement for the stud career of Lucky Vega, a Group 1-winning son of Lope de Vega (IRE), who stood at a modest fee of $16,500 last season.
Written by Tom Baddock for TTRAusNZ
