Australia’s forgotten Group 1 sprinting mare Skybird has fully recovered from an untimely autumn injury and has another Flemington sprint feature as her main spring goal.
Trainer Mitchell Freedman said on Monday that Skybird had returned to work at his Ballarat stables with an eye to running her primarily this spring in straight races at Flemington given her remarkable straight-track record where she has either won or placed in all three starts.
“We haven’t made a plan that is set in concrete, but we are looking towards the Champions Sprint at Flemington,” Freedman said. “She handles the straight really well and she has shown she is up to that level.
“We could potentially keep her to Flemington and run her in the two straight races leading into it, being the Bobbie Lewis and Gilgai (Stakes), or go to The Valley for some other big sprint races.”
WATCH: Skybird’s Lightning win
Group 1 sprints at The Valley such as the Moir Stakes (1000m) and Manikato Stakes (1200m) are being considered, but Freedman said the Champions Sprint (1200m) stands out as a target on final day of the Melbourne Cup Carnival.
Skybird blew away a quality field to land the prize at $31 in the G1 Black Caviar Lightning (1000m) at Flemington in February, but she wasn’t seen again for the rest of the campaign after coming out of the race with a pectoral muscle injury.
While fellow G1-winning sprint mares such as Joliestar, Sunshine In Paris and emerging filly Lady Shenandoah were immediately put up as likely Everest contenders following their elite-level triumphs during the season, no such fuss was made about Skybird.
She did not receive an invitation to Royal Ascot, as most Lightning winners do and so far, connections have received no approaches from slot-holders for October’s The Everest.
“There’s been no interest so far but we’re not too worried,” Freedman said. “We’ve had a couple of team meetings with connections along the way and they have put absolute faith in the stable, so that’s given us confidence that the plans we have in place are the right ones.
“She’s shown she us very good in a straight line and also very good around a corner, so those Flemington sprints will really suit her.
“Last year she ran in the Golden Eagle (1500m), so the main thing this spring is she is being prepped as a sprinter now entirely.”
Freedman said Skybird was close to a return for the Sangster in Adelaide in late April, but with so much at stake this spring, it was decided to spell her instead.
“We got her back to a point where we were a month out from the Sangster and we had to make a decision there on whether we push on towards that race or give her a break,” he explained.
“I just thought we’d lost too much ground in fitness and so it was best to turn her out.
“If we were pushing towards the Sangster and she reinjured that muscle injury she had, then we would have been putting ourselves in an awkward spot to try and get her ready for the spring.”
- Racing.com News Desk
