Photo by Racing and Sports
Tuesday, 21 February 2012: Group One winner Ortensia is the latest Australian speedster being aimed at success in Dubai after Scone trainer Paul Messara revealed the mare would contest next month's $1,000,000 Al Quoz Sprint.
The six-year-old will fly to the Middle East early next month and spend about four weeks preparing for the five-furlong gallop to be held at the Dubai World Cup meeting on March 31.
She'll be joined at the track by last year's Golden Slipper winner Sepoy, and potentially by unbeaten superstar Black Caviar, both of who are on track to clash in the lucrative $2m Golden Shaheen (1200m) on the same day.
Ortensia, who claimed the Group One Winterbottom Stakes (1200m) in November last start, might then even push on to England with Messara hinting connections may extend an enforced quarantine stay with a couple of race starts.
“We're not sure to be honest, you've got to go quarantine via either England or Singapore, so if she's got to go to England she might have a couple of starts over there before she heads home,” Messara said.
“It'll only be one run in Dubai. She's going to run in the Al Quoz the sprint.”
A successful overseas campaign would provide connections with a bonanza of riches that looked impossible midway through last year when the horse was set to be retired.
But owner Alister Fraser, a Scone local, had a change of heart, and offered the former Tony Noonan trained mare to Messara.
The career redirection proved a masterstroke and in two starts under Messara, Ortensia has won the GH Mumm Stakes (1100m) at Flemington and the Winterbottom.
“She's a really good filly [mare], she's as good as I've had,” the young trainer said.
“Certainly she could be pretty competitive in some of the better races overseas definitely.”
Meanwhile, Messara was unsure where talented three-year-old Rekindled Alliance would end up this preparation after his eye-catching fourth in the Royal Sovereign Stakes (1200m) at Warwick Farm on Saturday.
The Redoute's Choice colt's eye-catching effort was overshadowed by Hot Snitzel's win over the resuming Manawanui, but his superb effort was no less impressive.
Messara has nominated the horse for the $2m Doncaster Handicap (1600m) in April, but the staying type looks just as capable of forging an Australian Derby (2400m) campaign.
Rekindled Alliance will next run in the Hobartville Stakes (1400m) and next month's Randwick Guineas (1600m) but what's next remains a mystery.
“We're just going to play it by ear a little bit and see when we get up in distance what we think he's really best at,” Messara said.
“They got home really well [in the Royal Sovereign]. His sectionals were super and he did what we hoped he would.”
