\n The enormously altered Australian sprinting landscape may have gifted Matamata flyer Alabama Lass a
\n dream shot at Group 1 glory across the Tasman.\n <\/p>\n
The 4-year-old looked fast and forward when leading throughout in a stacked black-type trial at Te Rapa on Saturday, beating the likes of her own stablemate Legarto and Foxbridge Plate favourite Sacred Satono.<\/p>\n
It is a long way from winning a trial anywhere to grabbing a Group 1 target like the A$750,000 ($820,000) Moir Stakes, the target which Alabama Lass is being aimed at on September 6 at The Valley.<\/p>\n
But the Ken and Bev Kelso-trained speedster has a few factors in her favour as she stares down a victory that could add millions to her value.<\/p>\n
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.<\/a><\/p>\n Not only is Alabama Lass seriously fast but she has already won a decent 1100m race at Flemington, so has proved she can travel, settle and perform to black-type level in Victoria.<\/p>\n While Ken Kelso admits the Moir will be a step or two up again, the market has Alabama Lass as the $6 second-favourite and suggests few of the big-name sprinters in Australia are likely to be at The Valley on September 6.<\/p>\n That may sound a little odd, especially with the value placed on Group 1 sprint victories for future stallion prospects, but Australian sprinters are spoiled for sprint targets these days, many at the back end of their campaigns.<\/p>\n The A$20 million Everest at Randwick on October 18 is now clearly the biggest sprint race in this part of the world, especially as it has become a Group 1, and many of the key contenders stay in New South Wales or head there to prepare.<\/p>\n Further softening the early spring field is the fact more and more horses are going into the Everest with just one, or at the most two, runs under their belts.<\/p>\n While the Moir can still fit into a two-prep run strategy, no Moir winner has gone on to even place in the Everest the following month.<\/p>\n Victorian-trained horses who do want to stay home to spin their wheels at Group 1 level before chasing the Everest, or the A$2m Sydney Stakes on that same Randwick card, still have the A$1m Manikato at The Valley on September 26 as a natural lead-up.<\/p>\n And there is also the Champions Sprint during Melbourne Cup week as the spring-ending target, which again seems to be deterring some trainers from aiming their elite at the Moir, even though Imperatriz won both in 2023, bypassing the Everest in between.<\/p>\n Ken Kelso isn\u2019t kidding himself that Alabama Lass faces an easy task in the Moir but on sheer speed and career best-performance (second in a Railway), she profiles at the same level as another Matamata mare, Roch N Horse, who went to Melbourne and won two Group 1 sprints in 2022.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a Group 1 in Aussie and they are never easy,\u201d says Kelso.<\/p>\n