The dream for country- trained mare Super Girl to gain a start in the Melbourne Cup has moved a step closer with her first-up victory at Sandown.
After watching Super Girl’s win in Wednesday’s benchmark 70 race over 1500 metres, her Bendigo-based trainer Josh Julius said the focus of her spring campaign was to gain a start in the Melbourne Cup.
He added that he knew how difficult it would be to achieve this.
“We’ll have a lot of fun trying to get there. I’m prepared to duck and weave our way into it,” Julius said.
The next big target for the daughter of So You Think is The Bart Cummings (2500 metres) at Flemington on October 3 which carries a golden ticket into the Melbourne Cup for the winner.
Last campaign, the lightly-raced six-year-old mare finished fourth in the Warrnambool Cup and then third in the Andrew Ramsden Stakes at Flemington behind Oceanex before being spelled.
“It’s the perfect start. I probably didn’t really expect her to pick them up like that as she was giving weight to a few of them,” Julius said.
Julius pointed out that Super Girl would have to keep winning races to even gain a start in the The Bart Cummings as she needed to lift her ratings.
Her midweek success was a stepping stone, gaining her a few extra ratings points.
“We’ve made no secret that we’re heading towards The Bart Cummings with the idea of picking a few races along the way, like these (benchmark) 70s, to try and get her in races she can win just to really get her rating up,” Julius said.
“In a perfect world, we’d get the job done there but it’s certainly not that easy.”
Super Girl was ridden by the trainer’s sister Melissa Julius who used her three kilo claim.
Julius said Super Girl could possibly return to Sandown Hillside on September 9 for an 1800m race.