Orchestral geared up with blinkers for Empire Rose Stakes at Flemington

Orchestral. Photo / Kenton Wright / Race Images

Trainer Roger James has added a turbo button to Orchestral for her spring grand final at Flemington tomorrow.

The Cambridge mare will wear blinkers for the first time in a race in the A$1 million Empire Rose Stakes, in which she is to take on Kiwi-owned Atishu and former Australian glamour girl Amelia’s Jewel in one of the highlights of the famous Derby Day.

The multiple Group 1-winning mare has been unplaced in both her runs this season, not totally unexpected as her first-up 1400m was too short, and second-up over 1600m, she got too far back and didn’t get clear until late at an unsuitable Caulfield.

Tomorrow she will be fitter and far better suited to the vast expanses of Flemington, where new jockey Mark Zahra should be able to settle her then build up a head of steam before unleashing.

But in a field of this class, she won’t want to be giving the other Group 1 mares five lengths at the 400m, which is why James and training partner Robert Wellwood have added the blinkers.

“She has worn them in her work before and they have sparked her up,” James told the Herald.

“It is not a case of her not being genuine, obviously, because she is such a good horse, but she is too relaxed in the middle of her races and she is needing to be ridden up, and in this type of race we don’t want that.

“So we are hoping the blinkers keep her more interested in the middle stages.”

James and Wellwood have been very open all spring about the fact Orchestral was working her way back to her peak, with her appetite occasionally off and her winter coat taking a long time to come away.

But James says the 4-year-old is now back to her NZ Derby-winning best.

“She looks great and is ready to go.

“What we would like is some genuine tempo in the race but I have no idea if we are going to get that.”

Closer to home, the stable has Dionysus in the feature staying race at Tauranga, but he is carrying a good horse’s 60kg, meaning he concedes to some emerging rivals like Jolting and The Odyssey a serious weight advantage.

“He is going well and comes out of the Livamol last start, but the weight does worry me a bit,” admits James.

While Orchestral is New Zealand’s best chance on Derby Day, there are talented reps across several of the major races, including Bellatrix Star in the A$2 million Coolmore Stud Stakes.

The Group 1 over 1200m down the famous Flemington straight is one of the most important races for the Australian breeding industry and is rarely tackled by New Zealand-trained horses.

Bellatrix Star’s form has gone to a whole new level this spring and it will need to be maintained as she meets some elite sprinting colts in Growing Empire, who was third in the Everest, Traffic Warden and the Golden Slipper-winning filly Lady Of Camelot.

The fact she is rated as having an equal chance to Lady Of Camelot at $9 is already a sign of how far she has come, but to win tomorrow she may need to channel her inner Imperatriz, a former stablemate of hers which dominated Victoria’s premier sprints last year.

New Zealand trainers also have Stage N Screen (race two), Our Paramour (R5) in the Oaks lead-up, and the Wakeful Stakes and West Indies in the Victoria Derby, that market headed by the Cambridge Stud-bred El Castello.

Sans Doute looks to resume her love affair with the Flemington straight in the last race on the card.

Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.