She’s Unusual and West Of Africa combined on Wednesday to deliver the OTI silks a metropolitan double at the Randwick Kensington track, doing so in impressive style.
New Zealand-bred mare She’s Unusual broke through for connections first up this campaign, and off the back of a creditable 2nd last start, was primed to peak 3rd up over 1550m. Jason Collett took up the running, with the mare going on to win quite softly.
Although there is a suitable 1800m Fillies & Mares Benchmark 78 at Randwick on Saturday week, John O’Shea & Tom Charlton may look to play the long game with the mare and give her a short let up. She gives every impression she’ll be effective out to 2000m, so we look forward to testing that theory next campaign.
Closing out the card was West Of Africa, reuniting with James McDonald, a pairing that had already achieved metropolitan success two starts ago. The step to 1550m proved to be ideal at this stage of the preparation, as the gelding flowed into the race from the 600m mark before showing a decisive turn-of-speed.
The 1600m Benchmark 78 at Randwick on August 10 could be a very favourable target for the gelding, who certainly deserves a step back into Saturday company.
Congratulations to both sets of connections. Off the strength of their wins, hopefully our owners will be tasting Saturday success in the coming months.