SCHWEIDA TAKES AIM AT A THIRD TATTS TIARA WIN

By Graham Potter | Friday, June 27, 2025

It was a precious moment for the Kelly Schweida stable when Damian Browne brought Miss Cover Girl home with a flourish to hold off the race favourite Azkadellia to win the 2016 Group 1 Tatts Tiara.

Eleven years prior to that Schweida had taken out the same race … then known as the Winter Stakes … in even more celebratory fashion when Nova Star saluted under the late Stathi Katsidis, a result which gave Schweida his first success at the elite Group 1 level.

Fond memories indeed for the Schweida yard and the stable now having the chance to add to their Tatts Tiara honour roll on Saturday, a race in which they will be represented by the grey, daughter of Star Witness, El Morzillo.

The filly has already topped $1 million in prize-money, largely courtesy of her big win in the lucrative Inglis Sprint at Flemington back on March 1.

That was the third time that Schweida had ventured down south with El Morzillo, having previously raced at Randwick in the $2 million Inglis Miillennium and the Group 2 Percy Sykes (in which she finished fourth) … and he would later take El Morzillo to Sydney again for runs in the Group 2 Furious Stakes and the Group 2 Tea Rose.

Offering El Morzillo that type of test of strength early on was a sign of the confidence the stable had in the horse and it wasn’t unfounded, as, while El Morzillo’s best result down south, apart from that stunning Inglis Sprint win, was that fourth placing in the Percy Sykes, she never ran a bad race in any of those other assignments.

Back home El Morzillo has recorded two wins in her career to date, and she has also posted highly creditable results when finishing fourth in the Group 1 J J Atkins, second in the Group 2 Champagne Classic and fourth in the Group 2 Dane Ripper.

In terms of relevance to Saturday, the Dane Ripper run is of special significance as that came on June 14, just two weeks ago, the last time El Morzillo was in action.

Jumping from the worst of the draw (barrier fourteen out of fourteen), Tim Clark went forward on El Morzillo, sat in second place tracking the leader, kicked on gamely in the straight but could not match the finishing efforts of the best of those around her as the early effort from the draw arguably took its toll.

All things considered, that was a solid effort and, taken in conjunction with El Morzillo’s previous two starts in which she recorded a win over 1350m in heavy going and a Group 3 result in which, although unplaced, she finished less than two lengths behind the winner in the Fred Best … there are enough positives there to suggest that El Morzillo can stake a claim here.

Tommy Berry will become the sixth jockey to ride El Morzillo in her last six starts and, again, the horse has not been given any favours with the draw, being allocated the number eleven barrier.

A win by El Morzillo would give Kelly Schweida three wins in the Tatts Tiara in three different decades.

That would be quite an achievement.

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