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Progressive Anthony Cummings filly She Goes To Rio earned a shot at next month's Group One ATC Oaks with a gutsy win in this afternoon's $100,000 Canberra Guineas.
Photo by Racing and Sports
And Peter Robl all but booked himself in to ride the filly for the rest of the autumn after orchestrating an impressive late dash to pinch the Guineas from Peter Snowden's Detours with Aberrant holding on for third.
She Goes To Rio looked to have run into the bad luck which robbed her first-up last month when Aberrant and Road To Summer jammed together to block her run at the 200m.
A narrow gap opened up though at the 150m and Robl took full advantage, bursting through to improve the horse's record to four wins from five starts.
“It'd be hard to take him off he's two from two,” Cummings said.
“The original plan Hughie [Bowman] was on but he couldn't make the weight in his last couple so we'll have to have that chat but Pete's done a great job.
“The other thing came around quickly and shut her out but she's a game thing and Pete was quite strong and got the job done.”
Robl said he was very keen to stay on the daughter of Captain Rio.
“She's an extremely good filly so she'll win better races than today,” Robl said.
“She'll go to the next level and continue to perform. She's that genuine she's pretty versatile.”
Cummings said the next step would likely be the Group Three Keith Nolan Classic (1600m) at Kembla Grange, although he hinted he might be tempted by the Group One Coolmore Classic (1500m) on the same weekend at Rosehill.
The Group Two Phar Lap Stakes (1500m) is also a possibility.
“We'll just see, she's a very progressive filly, a very nice filly and if I get what I expected when I first saw her, she'll turn up on Oaks day and be hard to beat,” Cummings said.
“Her first-up loss was a bit of a bugger but you can't help bad luck.”
Meanwhile, Greg Hickman speedster Girls Go Racing won back-to-back Camarena Handicaps mirroring the dominant effort she produced 12 months ago.
The five-year-old pulled away in the final furlong to storm home two lengths clear of local Vilakazi Street with Gold Moss back in third.
