3 minute read
Talented filly Miss Joelene will be out to lay down a marker for a possible Group 1 Queensland Oaks campaign when she heads to Doomben on Saturday.
Miss Joelene was an impressive first-up winner at Doomben on April 3 and will be striving to maintain her perfect record this campaign in the QTIS Three-Year-Old Filles Handicap over 1350 metres.
It was the first start for the daughter of Russian Revolution since a failed Sydney campaign when she was beaten in the Group 2 Tea Rose and Group 1 Flight Stakes at Randwick in September last year.
Trainer Kelly Schweida has put a line through her Sydney failures and is hopeful she can prove she's a worthy Queensland Oaks contender.
"She can run 1600 metres for sure and Ryan Maloney said after she ran in the Flight Stakes that she'd get 2000 metres easily," Schweida said.
"We're banking on what her mother's half-sister Cellar Maid did when she came from last to finish second to Stockman in the (Listed) Caloundra Cup over 2400 metres a few years ago."
Schweida's immediate aim with Miss Joelene is the Listed Princess Stakes at Eagle Farm on April 27.
"It all depends on how she goes in the Princess Stakes as to how far we push on," Schweida said.
"We're trying to get her into the right rhythm for the winter races, that's why she's having a quick back-up."
Schweida was pleasantly surprised with the juicy odds offered for Miss Joelene when she won at Doomben last time.
"I couldn't understand why she got out to $4 at one stage as she was coming off a Group 1 race in Sydney and meeting Class Two horses in Brisbane," he said.
"Her first Sydney run in the Tea Rose was only average but I was a bit behind time with her for that race and the trip down may have had an effect.
"It was a hot race in the Flight Stakes but she ran a good race and her sectionals were very good.
"Hopefully, she can go on to the Oaks from here, that's our Plan A.
"It all depends how she goes each time she races over the next month or so."
While in Sydney connections had hoped to turn back time with Miss Jolene as he mother Cellargirl was placed in both the Tea Rose and Flight Stakes in 2017.
However, in a tragic prequel to the Flight Stakes, Cellargirl died after foaling a Snitzel colt.
"She died giving birth to a Snitzel colt which would have been worth a lot of money and then her foal died two weeks later after she had a couple of foster mothers," Schweida said.
Cellargirl was a valuable broodmare winning more than $264,000 in prizemoney with three wins and four placings from 17 starts.
As well as her placings in the Tea Rose and Flight Stakes, she won the Listed Bill Carter as a two-year-old in Brisbane in 2017.