By MIKE DILLON
She's not big enough to push and shove for a couple of millions bucks, but Flying Babe has brilliance to burn.
The $500,000 Mercedes Super Bonus Classique winner could win Saturday's $70,000 BNZ Matamata Breeders Stakes by 10 lengths, but will still not head to Sydney for the $A2.5 million Golden Slipper.
"She's just not big enough," said co-trainer Richard Yuill after Flying Babe galloped brilliantly in training at Takanini yesterday morning.
Flying Babe looked capable of winning anything with one of the season's most stunning wins in the Mercedes Classique, but speed alone does not win Golden Slippers.
"If we thought she could jump to the front and lead in the Slipper, she'd be there," said Yuill.
"But you can never guarantee leading in a Slipper. And it can be dangerous getting caught in the body of the field. It is such a rough race and she is not big enough to push and shove.
"Some of those colts over there are big and strong and if she got a knock it would be the end of her chances.
"She's very classy, but she's not rugged enough."
Group one status on a pedigree page is a huge achievement for a filly for a stud career and the Flying Babe camp feel they are better off trying for that in New Zealand.
"If you don't go to Sydney for the Slipper, the other races are $A100,000 and not group one, so you are better off here in races like the two Sires Produce, which are group one for the same money."
Flying Babe has done remarkably well since the runaway Mercedes win, to the point where an attempt on the $1 million Ford Triple bonus may not be an impossibility.
The bonus is for winning the $100,000 Wakefield Stakes and the dual Sires Produce Stakes at Awapuni then Ellerslie.
Yuill said yesterday the Wakefield was a definite option if Flying Babe did well after Saturday's Matamata race.
"We're taking one race a time and she will tell us when she's had enough, but I don't think by any means she's at that point.
"She ate up the night of the Te Rapa race and galloped the fastest 1000m of the training session this morning, which suggests she's right on her game."
The stable is waiting keenly for today's barrier draw for Saturday's race.
Draws are generally crucial in 2-year-old racing, but even that may not be a factor if Flying Babe clears the gate with the same brilliance she displayed in her Mercedes win, where she was almost one length clear of the opposition on hitting the ground.
"Nothing could match her speed at Te Rapa, and that was against the colts and the fillies.
"It would be very unlikely something would take her on in front in a fillies' race this time."
Racing: Brilliant Flying Babe no Golden Slipper mauler
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