Verry Elleegant has been blessed with that indeterminable something has served her well with an amazing ability to find a bit extra when it matters most. It has carried her to eleven Group 1 wins, the latest coming with a typically brave performance when defending her title in the $600,000 Tab Chipping Norton Stakes at Randwick (1600m) on Saturday.
She just keeps finding under pressure (image Steve Hart)
A huge upset was brewing when the outsider of the field, She’s Ideel, ranged alongside Verry Elleegant. The Melbourne Cup heroine rallied under James McDonald to hold the challenge of She’s Ideel (Dundeel) by a head with Angel Of Truth (Animal Kingdom) a further one and a quarter lengths back in third.
The 6yo daughter of Zed surpasses the triple Melbourne Cup winner Makybe Diva as Australia’s fourth-highest stakes earner.
She advances her record to 16 wins, seven seconds, and three from 36 starts with earnings of $14,643,244.
Waller did his best to hold his emotions in check. The champion trainer was winning the race for the tenth time, four of which came with the great Winx.
“It’s touching me a little, no tears, but it has touched me,” Waller said.
“She is just an amazing horse to work with. I am blessed to be in the position to work with these great horses, great people who work behind the scenes, as has been the case with this horse from day one, even before she got to me.
Great combination (image Steve Hart)
“She’s a real piece of work, fights like a tiger. I thought the second horse might have had us at the 100 metre mark, but that’s when the Verry Elleeegant qualities pop in, and she lifts to another level; that’s just her. She is in for a great prep.
The Ranvet Stakes has always been the plan. Obviously, the All-Star Mile was there, and that might have been back on the cards had they not run today, and that’s how things can change. That was always the plan the Ranvet, and then the Queen Elizabeth so three weeks-three weeks, it just works out perfectly.”
Bred by Don Goodwin, Verry Elleegant is the best of three winners from four to race out of the Danroad mare Opulence.
Goodwin had purchased Opulence for just $14,000 at the 2011 NZB National Broodmare Sale. Her granddam Chalet Girl (Imposing) is a half-sister to Danewin and Commands and comes from the same Eight Carat family of Verry Elleegant's sire Zed.
