Racing: Imelda Mary's mission to boost spending money

Imelda Mary. Photo / Trish Dunell

Wayne Hillis will be looking to pick up a bit more holiday money when he heads to Sydney on Tuesday with talented three-year-old filly Imelda Mary.

The Matamata trainer is pressing ahead with a start in the Group 1 Australian Oaks (2400m) at Randwick on Saturday with Imelda Mary, who has just completed her local campaign as joint New Zealand Bloodstock Filly of the Year with Queen Of Diamonds.

It will be Hillis' second attack on the Australian Oaks and it comes 15 years since he saddled up Group 2 Championship Stakes (2100m) winner Boulevardofdreams to finish third to Wild Iris in the three-year-old fillies' feature after a fresh-up fifth in Sydney in the Group 1 Arrowfield Stakes (2000m).

Hillis and Boulevardofdreams then regrouped and headed on to the United States, where the daughter of Daggers Drawn made a hit-and-run bid on the Group 1 American Oaks (2000m) and finished a creditable seventh. The US will again be the focus of Hillis' international attention after this year's Australian Oaks, but not for Imelda Mary.

While Imelda Mary will head to the spelling paddock after her Sydney raid, Hillis will be counting down to a 28-day tour co-hosted by Taranaki trainer John Wheeler and his wife, Linda, taking in the last two legs of the US Triple Crown, the Group 1 Belmont Stakes (2400m) and Group1 Preakness Stakes (1900m).

"I leave for the tour on May 15 and it would be great to pick up some more spending money beforehand," Hillis said. "I think she can get some of it in the Oaks. The race has always been in the back of my mind and I'm just overlooking her last run."

Imelda Mary, who is named after Hillis' mother, is a dual Group 2 winner who followed up her latest win at that level with a third in the Group 2 Lowland Stakes (2100m), but then beat only four home in the Group 1 New Zealand Oaks (2400m) at Trentham last start.

"She wasn't happy in the ground and the way the race was run, a stop-start affair, didn't suit her," Hillis said. "The three best credentialled fillies were all out of the money in it and we'd beaten the winner [Sentimental Miss] a couple of times before."

Hillis will be out to continue a trend of having picked up prizemoney most times he has taken horses to Australia.

After the Australian Oaks, Hillis will have one further major mission before his holiday — a tilt at the Group 2 Manco Easter Handicap (1600m) at Ellerslie this month with Watch This Space, who was an unlucky last-start second to Volpe Veloce in the Group 2 Japan New Zealand International Trophy (1600m) at Tauranga.

"He was held up a bit at Tauranga and if he'd got out sooner, it would've made it interesting. He's come through the race well."

- NZ Racing Desk