Girls Girls Girls set for Oaks triumph

She is yet to win a race from her four runs, but trainer Andrew Bobbin is confident his promising staying filly Girls Girls Girls can break her duck in the Listed $150,000 Kevin Sharkie Tasmanian Oaks (2100m) in Launceston on Sunday.

WINGS OF SONG.
WINGS OF SONG. Picture: TAS Racing

Girls Girls Girls staked her claim for the Oaks with a fast finishing second in the traditional lead-up race, the Strutt Stakes (2100m), in Hobart on 11 February.

In that race, Girls Girls Girls came from fifth on the home turn to be beaten narrowly by the favourite Wings Of Song but finished over the top of that filly and ran the quickest last 600m (36.37sec) of the race.

"She has been thriving, she was a month in between runs, and I think we all saw the way she finished off that race, another stride and she would have got there, but she has held her condition well; she's in good spirit and we are really looking forward to Sunday," Andrew Bobbin said.

Bobbin is based at Stawell in Western Victoria, but since her run in Hobart, Girls Girls Girls has remained in Tasmania at the Seven Mile Beach stables of John Keys.

"She arrived there on the Wednesday prior to the Strutt Stakes and has been there ever since; Those facilities really suit her down there, she's a filly that really appreciates getting down to the beach and into the water.

"She's still very new in her action. She sort of got lost once they accelerated at about 600m the other day, and it took her a bit of time to flatten out and hit the line, but she's improving every run, and hopefully, the improvement she can take from the Strutt Stakes will put her right in the firing line in the Oaks.

"She has done an excellent job for a filly in her first preparation; the only time she didn't run a place was at Flemington, where the circumstances of the race meant that she landed right on the speed, and she got running a little bit."

The top six placegetters from the Strutt Stakes will all meet again on Sunday with the addition of three more Victorian fillies: Ala Moana, trained by Danny O'Brien, Sinister Sauce from the Simon Zahra yard and Carly Cook's Mizz Isle.

"I'm pretty much drawing the strength of the race on what we've seen in the Strutt Stakes, and on the back of her run there, she has to be one of the strong chances."

Bobbin will make the trip to Launceston on Sunday and stay over for the Magic Millions sale on Monday.

Sunday marks the second last day of the Tasmanian Summer Racing Festival. The other feature race of the day is the time-honoured $150,000 Little Giant Homes Gold Sovereign Stakes (1200m) for 2YO's, where the unbeaten Geegees Mistruth will be a short-priced favourite.

My best for Sunday are Belluna in race 2 and Adachi in the last, neither had much luck at their last runs.

The first of nine races is at 12.15, with Matt Reid hosting all the action on TasracingTV.


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