All eyes will be on Ellerslie on Saturday for the running of the $175,000 Group Two Windsor Park Stud Soliloquy Stakes (1400m) – the second leg of the NZB Filly of the Year Series, and an increasingly important spring fixture in its own right.
Previously run at Listed level from 1988 to 2017, the Soliloquy held Group Three status between 2018 and 2022 and was elevated to Group Two last year. Saturday’s winner will earn a crucial 8 points in the NZB Filly of the Year Series, with 4 for second and 2 for third.
Winners of the Soliloquy Stakes in the last decade include subsequent Filly of the Year champions Legarto (NZ) (Proisir) in 2022 and Dijon Bleu (NZ) (Burgundy) in 2017, while other recent title winners Jennifer Eccles (NZ) (Rip Van Winkle), Belle En Rouge (NZ) (Burgundy) and Molly Bloom (NZ) (Ace High) were all second, third or fourth placegetters in the Soliloquy during the early stages of their successful campaigns.
Heading into this year’s race, Alabama Lass (Alabama Express) tops the Filly of the Year standings with 6 points, having won the season-opening Group Three Gold Trail Stakes (1200m) at Hastings last month. The placegetters in that race, Captured By Love (Written Tycoon) and Damask Rose (NZ) (Savabeel) earned 3 points and 1.5 points respectively.
Alabama Lass is the only one of those three fillies to return for Saturday’s Soliloquy. She does so as the clear favourite and stylish winner of three of her four career starts so far. Her only defeat was a second placing in last season’s Group Two Matamata Breeders’ Stakes (1200m). Trained by Ken and Bev Kelso, who guided Legarto to a Filly of the Year title two seasons ago, Alabama Lass was a dominant recent trial winner.
But she faces a highly talented line-up at Ellerslie on Saturday, including the Group One-placed Archaic Smile (Saxon Warrior) and multiple Group placegetter Love Poem (Snitzel). All of the seven other fillies in the field have been impressive winners at lower levels.
With its step up to 1400 metres from the 1200 metres of the Gold Trail Stakes, the Soliloquy provides a crucial test of stamina as fillies build towards next month’s prestigious Group One New Zealand 1000 Guineas (1600m) at Riccarton. That $550,000 classic will be the third leg of the NZB Filly of the Year Series and is worth 12 points to the winner.
The Windsor Park Stud Soliloquy Stakes will be run as Race 7 at Ellerslie on Saturday, with a scheduled start time of 3:35pm.
