Wee Gilly

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3yo Stakes Filly – Poised to be a Top Stayer

As a late maturing Roc de Cambes filly, Wee Gilly did not have her first race until March of this year. In her four races since then however, she has been impressive. Already a winner, she has also attained ‘black type’, with a strong finishing third in her last race before purchase. Her breeding, race talent, conformation and temperament are traits indicative of a top staying mare.

Her new trainer in Australia, Archie Alexander, will give her every chance of success.

At 16.1hh, Wee Gilly is an athletic type weighing around 540kgs. Despite her size, she is a well-balanced mover at both the walk and gallop. Possessing a low, open action, she carries herself efficiently and has an excellent turn of foot.  Her athleticism is matched by her looks. She is a brown, almost black filly, with an attractive head.

On April 12 at Waverly (her third race start), the filly showed her real talent. After settling last, she circled the field from the 800m point, got to the front at the 200m, then cruised to the line to win comfortably. Despite the soft track conditions and circumventing the field, she ran her last 800m in just over 47 seconds.

Only 9 days later on April 21, the filly went to Riccarton for the feature meeting. Again, settling at the rear, she came through the field to finish 3^rd in the Listed Warstep Stakes. In being beaten by only a neck, there is little doubt that the filly would have won in a further 50m.

The progress of this filly’s career has shown that, despite having 3 runs just over two weeks, she has also been able to progress to greater heights with each of those runs. For a lightly raced filly at any distance, let alone over staying journeys, these are excellent characteristics.

Her racing credentials are further enhanced by her strong finishing burst. Those horses that can sprint mid-race and still run to the line strongly generally have quality staying ability.

The family of Wee Gilly includes many high-class stakes winners, particularly at the second and third dam level. As the first foal of Keep ‘n’ Gilly, a full sister to Innovation, the filly also possesses proven blood within her first two generations. Both Keeper, her dam’s sire and Miss Grosvenor, her grand dam’s sire, are highly regarded broodmare sires in both New Zealand and Australia.

Wee Gilly’s third dam, Helen, brings numerous Group 1 horses into the pedigree. They include Caulfield Cup winner Imposera, New Zealand Derby winner Wahid, and Spring Champion Stakes Winner Imprimatur. The staying characteristics shown through the family no doubt supports the contention that this filly could be a high-class stayer.

The filly’s sire, Roc de Cambes is well known to OTI as the sire of Vin de Dance, the New Zealand Derby winner. Vin de Dance is also a late maturing type, who still has a long career ahead of him at Cups level in Australia.

Wee Gilly moved to Archie Alexander’s stables at Ballarat on May 10, 2018. Archie is in the process of assessing the filly with a view giving her a couple of races in June before spelling with the view of being again in late spring. His early work with her will have the best long-term interests of the filly front of mind.

Archie Alexander is most excited about being selected to train Wee Gilly. As a young trainer based in Ballarat, Archie has already shown remarkable ability as evidenced by his statistics and success with training fillies and mares.

At Ballarat, Archie possess all the tools to ensure his horses get every opportunity to achieve their racing objectives. As well as having access to the straight track at Ballarat and the surrounding gallops, he possesses his own pool, treadmill, scales and other equipment necessary to get the best out of the horse. In recent times, Archie has been able to progress our sprinting filly, So Far Sokool from similar credentials in New Zealand

We are very confident that Archie will manage this filly’s racing career in such a way as to ensure the partners get the best results from her.

Given her ability as a racehorse, her value can only increase as she performs at both city and stakes level. Should she become a stakes winner, she will quickly become an attractive breeding proposition for the bigger commercial breeders.

Promoters
OTI Management Pty Ltd (Authorised Representative No 001238507)
Address: 204/425 Docklands Drive, DOCKLANDS VIC 3008
Telephone: (03) 9670 0255; Email: oti@oti.com.au

Being an Authorised Representative of
Stable Connect Ltd (AFS Licence No. 336964)
Address: Level 6, 45 William Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
Telephone: 03 9629 3023; Facsimile: 03 9629 3041; Email: atims@stablefinancial.com.au
Web: www.stablefinancial.com.au