After leaving a big impression on her connections, the Melbourne Cup Carnival Country Final winner Toregene returns to the races this Saturday.
After four wins, three of them consecutive, and one second placing in the Group 3 Summoned Stakes from her first six starts, the 4yo mare has a most exciting preparation ahead of her. Having been given more time to mature, we now have a strong mare on our hands ready to make an impression this autumn.
Without a doubt, Toregene has plenty of talent, but trainer Matthew Williams thinks most of it is still undiscovered. “I think we haven’t seen the best of her just yet,” says Williams after the mare won the Country Series Final at Flemington last year. After her glorious win, she competed in her first start at black-type level where she finished second.
After a well deserved break, the 4yo returns to the races on Saturday in the Group 3 Mannerism Stakes over 1400m before heading up to Sydney, where she will remain for most of her races this prep. In preparation for her Sydney campaign, she galloped reverse way at Warrnambool between races on Monday with the Price/Kent-trained Our Playboy, who has raced in Sydney before.
“She has never gone around this way, so it was good to give her the experience and they improve a lot when they go around again. Our Playboy has gone to Sydney before and is quite versatile so he was a good horse to pair her up with. Toregene is a very strong horse, she’s very strong whatever she does, but the reverse way might take a bit of the excitement off her in the early stages as she can get quite keen” said Matthew Williams while watching Toregene at Warrnambool.
Her plan going forward from the Mannerism, provided she’s competitive first-up, will be the Group 1 Coolmore Classic into another stakes option in Sydney or Melbourne, which will culminate in a shot at the Group 1 Queen Of The Turf Stakes. This would give her a crack at two Group 1 races with a Group 2 in between.
A most exciting preparation ahead for this 4yo mare that we’re certainly looking forward to.
Best of luck to everyone involved for Saturday’s race!