Racing: Foxbridge Plate off radar as La Crique set for Group 1

La Crique. Photo / Race Images

Freakish filly La Crique won't be contesting the Foxbridge Plate on Saturday.

Last season's Derby runner-up is still rated a $10 chance for the Group 2 race at Te Rapa but co-trainer Katrina Alexander confirms she won't be heading there.

"She is going to Taupō on Wednesday for the trial before the races," Alexander told the Herald.

"The Foxbridge was never really on the radar so she will trial on Wednesday and all going well start fresh-up in the Tarzino at Hastings."

That September 10 feature will give La Crique a shot at the Group 1 needed to enormously boost her future broodmare career, and Alexander says it will help her and husband Simon decide her spring path.

"It will give us an idea of whether she still has that quick acceleration needed for a race like the 1600m on the second day at Hastings, and eventually the Golden Eagle in Sydney.

"Or, if she shows us in the Tarzino she is looking for more ground this time in, we might head to Australia earlier to look for more suitable options over longer distances."

La Crique, who was stunning winning last season's Avondale Guineas, is the $4.80 third favourite for the Tarzino and the Alexanders are willing to wait to see whether their preferred jockey Craig Grylls can ride her.

Grylls is also the regular rider of Tarzino second favourite Dragon Leap, who remarkably isn't guaranteed a Tarzino start as he sits 28th in the rankings, although plenty of defections look likely.

"The ride is Gryllsy's if he wants it but we don't have to rush any decisions yet."

Fair price for flying filly

TAB bookies are not often accused of being too generous but that could be the case with Breeders Stakes winner Lickety Split.

The Group 1 winner got out to a remarkable $5.50 on her way to beating Pacific Dragon at Ruakaka on Saturday, that late market move likely a reaction to what big players were doing on overseas exchanges, and the decisions made by algorithms reliant on strike rates.

While those movements aren't made by TAB bookies, who opened Lickety Split at around $3.50, they do decide the futures markets and the $10 for Lickety Split in the 1000 Guineas looks more than fair.

The classic is still over two months away but Lickety Split looks a Guineas-type filly and can only improve on her fresh-up victory.

Good on Godolphin

It was a breath of fresh spring air in the dying days of winter watching Godolphin's Anamoe return a Group 1 winner at Randwick on Saturday.

So many of Australia's elite colts retire to stud at the end of their 3-year-old careers (think Home Affairs or The Autumn Sun), their Group 1 wins guaranteeing at least a commercial start to their stud careers.

As much as it is hard to argue with the numbers behind the move, it is an obvious deficiency in Australia's otherwise remarkable industry.