Talented mare Tofane (NZ) (Ocean Park) will line up in her fifth-straight Group One race in the All Aged Stakes (1400m) with trainer Mike Moroney hoping this time she can break through.
The All Aged is the signature event on Saturday’s Randwick program which brings Sydney’s Group One carnival racing to a close.
Tofane went closest to a Group One win two starts ago when a narrow third in The Galaxy (1100m) at Rosehill.
Either side of The Galaxy the four-year-old was seventh in the Newmarket Handicap at Flemington and fifth in a star-studded TJ Smith Stakes (1200m) at Randwick but Moroney is convinced she should have finished closer in both.
“She’s been pretty luckless,” Moroney said.
“We had a nice race in The Galaxy and she had her chance and just got beaten. But in the Newmarket and the TJ Smith she was pretty unlucky.
“She just didn’t get much luck in running during the Newmarket and she just got back and wide from a bad draw last start.
“She deserves a Group One on what she’s been doing.
“I think Pierata will be one of the favourites and she went as well as him last time, I thought.”
Tofane ended up back and wide from an awkward draw in the TJ Smith and finished three lengths from the dominant winner Nature Strip but only a length off runner-up Santa Ana Lane.
Santa Ana Lane was the $4 All Aged favourite on Monday with defending champion Pierata, fourth in the TJ Smith, at $4.50.
Newmarket Handicap winner Bivouac, sixth in the TJ, was also at $4.50 with Tofane at $15.
There are nine individual Group One winners among the 22 nominations, with a field limit of 14 plus four emergencies.
Tofane will again be ridden by New Zealand jockey Opie Bosson, who has been based in Sydney for some weeks, unable to travel back and forth because of coronavirus protocols.
A daughter of 2012 Cox Plate winner Ocean Park out of Galileo mare Baggy Green, Tofane will be stepping up to 1400m for the first time.
“We’re looking forward to it because she’s really bred to run it,” Moroney said.
“And she’s certainly starting to race a bit more that way.”
