PURPLE TAKES THE CLASSIC. WILLIAMS LANDS FOUR.

By Graham Potter | Monday, June 1, 2009

The Commands filly Purple scored her second Group 1 success of this preparation by taking out the Queensland Oaks in authoritative fashion at Eagle Farm.

Trainer Peter Snowden adjusted the tactics from the front-running role employed in the AJC Oaks . This time Purple was prominent, but more restrained, in the early part and Kerrin McEvoy followed his instructions to the letter, judging the pace of the race perfectly. Then it was up to Purple to put in a winning effort in the home straight. She was more than equal to the task. It was a fluent win which bodes well for future success.

Snowden is not tempted to stay on for the Queensland Derby saying the filly, “has done her job.”

While he missed out on the main prize, jockey Craig Williams still had a day to remember. The top gun won the first two races on the card (with Saint Minerva and Soiled) and then produced another double at the end of the day (on Orsentia and Chinchilla Rose) to go home with half the card in his pocket.

Williams shrugged off his success simply by saying, “I was riding the right horses today.” Chances are most of the connections involved in those victories were saying, ‘we had the right rider on today.’ It was an awesome display of intelligent riding by one of the foremost experts in his craft in the country and the big audience at Eagle Farm enjoyed every minute of it.

Willaims most valued ride was getting Ortensia up in a pressurised finish in the QTC Cup, a result which gives the filly a start in next week’s Stradbroke. The story behind that story is who will ride the filly in the big one. Williams was forced to choose his Stradbroke mount before this result and his decision came down in favour of the ruling favourite All Silent.

“She’s in my heart. I had to go with my head, but she’s in my heart,” Williams said, explaining his decision. “She’s got to do something that no horse has ever done ... create history. Maybe she is the right horse.”

Others winners also made a big contribution to a quality meeting.

Scenic Shot cruised home to land a second successive win in the P J O’Shea Stakes. That result, coming off his win in the Doomben Cup, underlined the high quality of the Daniel Morton trained runner, who has really thrived in his two visits to Queensland. The manner in which Scenic Shot contemptuously dismissed the challenges of some more-than-useful opposition was very impressive.

Trainer John Wallace told us he had a rising star in form of the two-year-old gelding Shoot Out. While being mindful of the trainer’s judgement, most thought the jump from a Gold Coast Maiden win to a Group 2 triumph in the Sires Produce would be too tough a task, but the Wallace word came through as Shoot Out arrived with a late flourish to gun down his opposition.

Shoot Out not only won over new followers and gave notice of better things to come, but he also gave jockey Dan Griffin his first Group winner. The new star partnership on the block will be in action again next week - in the TJ Smith. Wallace was again happy to give his opinion of, “he’ll win the TJ next Saturday and then I’ll give him a break.”

Old favourite Youthful Jack returned to his winning ways although jockey Corey Brown feels he could now be looking for a spell. Chinchilla Rose was another to bounce back with meaning while Saint Minerva demolished her rivals in the Grand Prix and Soiled also won in confident fashion to give trainer Jason Coyle a winner with his first runner in Brisbane.

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