Harness racing trainer Greg Bond confirmed after his star charge escaped with a win in last Friday night’s Gold Coast Oaks that the Nevele R Stud Australian Oaks on Friday night, July 16 was on her agenda.
Boom Western Australian filly Millwood Meg is heading to Victoria.
The daughter of Mach Three needs only to perform up to expectations in this Saturday night’s $75,000 Group 1 Queensland Oaks at Albion Park to book her trip south.
“She showed the other night she’s on target and hopefully she can go well in the Queensland Oaks and then, all being well, we’ll head down to Melbourne for the Australian Oaks a fortnight later,” Bond said.
Her appearance is a major fillip for the $75,000 Group 1, to be run at Melton’s Tabcorp Park.
Millwood Meg has created a massive impressive since joining Bond from her native New Zealand, where she won five of 16 starts.
Last Friday night’s victory took her Australian record to seven wins from eight starts with the beaten run a luckless narrow second to fellow classy WA filly Ella Sue.
Her biggest victory was the $150,000 Group 1 WA Oaks, while she also has a sizzling 1:54.8 win at Pinjarra to her credit.
Friday night’s $30,000 Group 3 was the procession most expected, but her ability to kick back and win after looking beaten was full of merit.
Millwood Meg sat outside the leader from the start and Torque In Motion to have her cold at the 100m, but she fought back courageously to score a half-head from that filly.
The mile rate for the 2100m event was 1:57.4, which included closing sections of 28 and 28.6 seconds.
“She doesn’t like horses getting past her and sitting in the breeze didn’t bother her,” Bond said. “She might lack a bit of brilliance, but they did run home in 56.6 (seconds), so she was pretty tough.”
Written by Brad Bishop (HRV)
