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Pasadena Girl proves the adage that great things come in small packages

20th Apr 2015

PASADENA Girl was the smallest horse in the field. Some of the filly’s rivals towered over her.

Next to the hulking giant, Takedown, she looked more like a pony than a racehorse.

But Pasadena Girl proved that size doesn’t matter when she came out on top in the Group 1 $400,000 Champagne Stakes (1600m).

Trainer Peter Moody said Pasadena Girl has taken him by surprise with her rapid progress this autumn given she is such a diminutive filly.

“Pasadena Girl is so small we had to put a bottom rail on the stable to keep her in,’’ Moody joked.

“She is like a little puppy dog, she kept sneaking out under the rail.’’

Moody kept the humour going when asked how much Pasadena Girl weighed.

“I’m an old ‘eye’ trainer — I don’t worry weighing them,’’ he said. “How much is left in the stubby is my biggest worry.’’

But all jokes aside, Pasadena Girl ($2.80) showed she is the real deal by finishing powerfully to overhaul Street Rapper ($11) and score by a half length with Tarquin ($8) a length away third.

Moody described Pasadena Girl as a “little gem” before revealing he had not expected her to be even racing this season.

“When I purchased her I expected her to be going to the races this time next year,’’ Moody said.

“But she has continued to surprise us. She has an unbelievable attitude towards racing and her work for such a little filly.

“She has showed us unbelievable ability but I kept thinking ‘she is a little light Savabeel, this will go sore and be in the paddock soon’.

“She didn’t go sore so I took her to Flemington to give her a run. When I threw Vlad Duric aboard I said ‘this is a bloody good filly, forget about the price and she won at 60-1’.

“Since that win, she has just kept improving and presented heavier today than she did for first start six weeks ago.’’

Pasadena Girl lined up for her fourth race start on Saturday, recording her third win and maintaining the fillies stranglehold on the Champagne Stakes after the wins of Guelph (2013) and Go Indy Go (2014),

Moody has now prepared five Group 1 winners for the season and he expects Pasadena Girl to be one of the stable’s main big-race contenders next season.

“She is a Flight Stakes-Thousand Guineas type filly and then you look at the Wakeful and (Victoria) Oaks,’’ he continued.

“She has that scope ahead of her and the progeny of Savabeel are showing they can do anything. This filly continues to surprise so anything is possible.”

Champion jockey Hugh Bowman scored his seventh Group 1 win of the season on Pasadena Girl and completed the Group 1 Randwick juvenile double after winning the ATC Sires Produce Stakes on Pride Of Dubai on Easter Monday.

“I was pleased to get the ride and 54.5kg is probably as light as I can go but I had a week to prepare and she certainly didn’t let me down,’’ Bowman said.

“I thought that the Pride Of Dubai form would stand up here and it proved to be good form, I knew he was a good horse and I hadn’t been on this filly until Tuesday morning.

“She worked very well with a partner and I said when we were coming back in to (track rider) Steve Parr what are you on and when he said Dissident my confidence grew.

“She is certainly going to be a force in the spring time. She is by Savabeel and what a great sire he has turned out to be and like I said I think as a three-year-old we can expect big things from this filly.’’

Blake Shinn, rider of Street Rapper, said he felt his colt was set to win the Champagne Stakes when he loomed up at the 250m.

“The speed was quite quick early and we settled into a lovely rhythm then he peeled out and felt the winner,’’ Shinn said. “But the filly was just a bit stronger on the day.’’

Damien Oliver, rider of sixth placegetter Oydssey Moon, and Kerrin McEvoy on the seventh-over-the-line Takedown both felt their mounts had come to the end of their preparations.